Hi, its Craig here from Dogs Go Woof Productions and it's a new year and new news for Permaculture The documentary.
We've had a few changes since our last major update and thought it was about time we released another update.
Going Solo
Firstly, Geoff the Producer of the film has decided to leave and pursue his own ventures. Geoff played a big part in getting the film out to the world, setting in our budgets and realistic goals that helped turn the dreaming of this film into a reality. It's sad to see him go, but I am so grateful for his help in building the community around the film and really set us up to define the core business elements that will make this film happen. So big thanks to Geoff. This means I will be, for the time being, working on the film solo!
Although it might sound crazy (riding solo), I am super confident that without Geoff, the film will still be complete and become the film that we both originally set out make.
Funding
Secondly, another huge donation from one of major supporters happened the start of this year, which is just AMAZING!. She has been an absolute gem and has believed in this project from the get go and donated yet another big sum to get this project officially rolling. This means we can officially start shooting!!! So, Massive Big Thanks to you Peggy!!!
Also a massive thanks to you if you have helped by donating and sharing. We have raised over $20,000, which means we can now start shooting the film! Wowza!
We still need your support
It's amazing to finally start shooting this project, but we still have a way to go to completion. To give you a perspective, the average feature documentary online costs about $2,000 - $10,000 per minute. For 60 minute film that equates to $120,000. That might seem a like a lot and you might be where does that money go?
Well, our budget to create the film is $100,000.
This covers all cost associated with making a film; location releases, music releases, equipment, shooting time, editing and marketing to actually host this film online to stream, absolutely free!!
One of the great things that Bill Mollison and David Holmgren envisioned with Permaculture was to not let it become institutionalised by universities and teach it freely to those who wanted to learn. The idea was to keep it uninfluenced by commercial gain. I believe this really opened up Permaculture to the world and drew the people who had similar values of respecting nature and looking for alternative ways to live, to come together and build the community that exists all around the world today (This is probably why Permaculture was seen as a hippy movement).
I have adopted this philosophy creating this film and this is why I plan to release the film free to stream online. The funds raised might seem like a long-shot, but if we can raise every penny, this film will be released free. This is why we need your help.
So if you would like to help, donating is the most effective way we can make sure this film gets made. If you can't donate, already have or just want to help is some way, another way you can help is by sharing on social media. The bigger the community we can build, the more likely we can reach our funding goal. Also this means once the film is made, the more people will have access to it and the more positive change we can create to help the world.
If you'd like to donate please visit our Page: https://www.dogsgowoof.com.au/permaculture-documentary
Next step
With the funds raised so far, it has allowed all the equipment necessary to be purchased and to shoot one of the major interviews for the film, which is fantastic!
I will be shooting two projects initially. One is a side story about the soil food web. This would have been great to include in the Permaculture Documentary, but the more I looked into the details, the more complex it became and yet, I think it is really important to show how important it is. So, I've decided to shoot it as a separate film. The second project is to shoot the interview with David Holmgren.
A side film
(Elaine Ingham: Soil Food Web) Will have more on this soon
The film will centre around soil ecology and microbiologist Dr. Elain Ingham's work on building soil using natural methods. The two most amazing findings she makes is, one; that you can build soil anywhere around the world just using compost and worm castings, and two; the more you build your soil, the more self sustaining it becomes. She explains how this is proven in the ecology of old growth forrest and how it basically needs no water, fertiliser or inputs. It is completely self sustaining system that can generate a lot of produce if plant species are planted. Also another point she makes from a biological standing view; that nature always finds balance. If something is out, nature will always find a way to bring it back into balance, especially in the short-lived biology sense. So, when you think about our place in the balance of nature, you realise "Mother Nature doesn't need us, but we need Mother Nature", Elaine Ingham. Even if you were a sceptic of Climate Change caused by us, you could definitely say, we don't have the best track record when it comes to being a balanced part of the ecosystem. There are few stories that demonstrate how Elain Ingham's work is working from the average house garden all the way to broad-scale farming. Really interesting stuff and I'll have more on this at a later stage.
Interview David Holmgren
If you don't know much about Permaculture just yet, David Holmgren is one of the founders of Permaculture and has agreed to do an interview for the film. I am really excited about this, as it's one of the fundamental pieces of the film; to understand what Permaculture is. It was hard to get a hold of him until recently and his story is really the backbone of this film. So, it's great to have him be a part of this project. I will be flying from Western Australia to where he lives in Victoria to do the interview and cover a range of topics from the history of Permaculture, understanding the core principles to how it has evolved today. His interview will act as the narration to introduce topics and people who are practicing them will be the stories to demonstrate the principles of Permaculture. A lot more will be covered once this is as it is underway. So stay tuned.
Shaping the Film's Direction
Early on, Geoff and I spent a lot of time learning and meeting people in permaculture and shooting small films. There was a couple of reasons we did this; One, coming from a non-permaculture background, we wanted to learn more about Permaculture before we actually dove into the major doco and two; to build a visual idea and show the style and feel of the film, so people would have a good idea about what we will be creating.
Over many hours of reading, watching and listening to people doing Permaculture, I've come to realise the hardest thing has been to define what Permaculture actually is in a simple way for people to understand. I think once you understand this, the rest of Permaculture starts to really make sense.
The problem and the inspiration of Permaculture
Before I discovered Permaculture, I was looking for a solution to make a film that would tell a story about people trying to solve some of the world's problems. I started small, looking for stories of pasture raised eggs to help inform people of how to not only buy better produce for themselves, but also reduce my own impact on the globe. It was this idea and the pursuit for an answer that lead me to stumble upon Permaculture. How I discovered it will be left for another time.
When I did discover Permaculture, it just made so much sense. It offered a solution to every problem. Or, I should say, "It offered a way to think of an approach to a solution, to every problem".
The concept is fantastic, but it had problems when I introduced it to friends and family and people who knew a little about Permaculture.
Unfortunately one of Permaculture's biggest misconceptions is it being a stereotype of being a hippy movement and a call to go back to primal methods and times (And to do it, you must be one with nature) but, I don't agree with this ideology. From reading and listening to hours and hours of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren's work, Permaculture was never designed with this intention. Bill and David saw the consequences of industrialising the world, especially in farming and how neglecting the laws of nature is a fundamental problem of the modern world. So, Permaculture was created as a way of thinking and interacting in the world so that you honour the laws of nature.
With this in mind, the main concept of the film is to break it down into the simplest form and explain it to the average person. I believe this is the best way to make permaculture not only attractive, but accessible to everyone and like it did for me, open the minds of world up to its awesomeness.
The film includes permaculture principles
Once you understand Permaculture, the rest is tools and methods to build systems that utilise nature in a beneficial way. One of the aspects of Permaculture is it has 12 principles, far too many to include in a 60 minute documentary. So, I've decided to focus on 5 or so that can be demonstrated and explained that will appeal to early beginners. These will then be the bases of stories within the film. These will be actual examples of people practicing them and their stories will be about them overcoming their own trivials and triumphs with a bigger over arching theme; to inspire action to prevent climate change. These will be discussed fuller at a later stage, once I have a better idea of what will be the most important principles to focus on. If you made it all the way down to here, give yourself a big slap on the back! Thanks for reading and if you have and queries please feel free to get in touch - Craig