Yesterday morning it was Giacomo Panico’s Monday Special Blend show on CKCU radio at Carleton University in Ottawa. This morning it was the “A-Morning” television show, and there is plenty more to come. If you like what you see and hear, please help me to spread the word.

David Chernushenko

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the making of my film Powerful: Energy for Everyone, I had the occasion to visit many communities, see interesting projects and interview passionate people of all stripes. I shot over 100 hours of video. Not all could be squeezed into a 95-minute film. This is one of the stories that I would like to have included if I had the space.

On April 7, 2010 my friend Jules de Heer passed away at the age of 53. Jules was a pioneer in a whole range of areas of eco/sustainable/green theories and practices. A trained engineer, Jules combined his rigorous attention to detail and desire for clarity with a passion for bringing human activity into harmony with natural processes and systems. He also introduced a strong aesthetic sense to whatever he was doing. To me, Jules de Heer was truly a pioneer in living lightly. His legacy will be a generation of students who studied under him, colleagues who worked with him, bid and host cities of Olympic Games that were “greened” by him, and many innovative tools for analysis and measuring performance that he shared generously with people like me.

I had the pleasure to visit with Jules and his family at their new home in Switzerland. Jules applied his passion for sustainability and precise detail in the design of this  pre-fabricated home, which meets and exceeds the Swiss “Minergie” standard.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the making of my film Powerful: Energy for Everyone, I had the occasion to visit many communities, see interesting projects and interview passionate people of all stripes. I shot over 100 hours of video. Not all could be squeezed into a 95-minute film. This is one of the stories that I would like to have included if I had the space.

The town of Almonte (part of the municipality of Mississippi Mills, Ontario) was in the process of rebuilding its “run of river” hydro generating facility to generate even more “green power”. The municipally-owned utility company will not only be generating renewable energy, but earning a return for the shareholder (the local citizens). At the same time, the town is in the middle of a locally-driven economic revival – one that is more diversified than ever, and which is driven by local entrepreneurs who care as much about the community as they do about making profit.

Parts of this interview will be featured in the upcoming David Chernushenko film, Powerful: Energy for Everyone.

Parts of this interview will be featured in the upcoming David Chernushenko film, Powerful: Energy for Everyone.

Parts of this interview will be featured in the upcoming David Chernushenko film, Powerful: Energy for Everyone.

Parts of this interview will be featured in the upcoming David Chernushenko film, Powerful: Energy for Everyone.

The inauguration of President Barack Obama has shown us two things: First, that the desire for positive change can manifest itself as an unstoppable force of hope and optimism. Second, that millions of ordinary people coming together to pool their energy and resources can ultimately overpower a legion of vested interests who are working to protect the status quo from which they benefit, and they can overcome a mass of ordinary people who have simply given up hope and given away their power.

On a smaller, personal scale, the past year has shown me that those of us who dream of living lightly and prospering in a greener, more sustainable world are becoming a similar unstoppable force. Every time I have shown my film or spoken to a group — be it a gym full of schoolchildren, a room full of corporate executives, a church congregation or a gathering of the eco-converted like me — I have seen peoples’ eyes light up and their passion fire up when presented with real, practical, inspiring alternatives to some of our society’s socially, economically and environmentally harmful practices.

People around the world are waking up and standing up, demanding better and, most importantly, offering their energy and resources to build something better, lighter and more lasting. My own little piece of proof: more than 50 groups have now been to public screenings of my first film Be the Change. Their feedback has been incredibly positive. More than 700 people have ordered copies of the DVD for themselves, as gifts, and to organize their own screenings. They are thanking me for bringing to them signs of hope. They are also expressing gratitude for not letting them off the hook; for making it clear that real, positive change only happens when every one of us does something – when words come with action.

I was recently invited to bring Be the Change to a film festival in Los Angeles. I accepted! More than that, I am now working hard to set up a Living Lightly West Coast Tour that will take me from Los Angeles to Vancouver, showing my film, speaking and doing more filming and interviewing for my second film (see below).

I want to keep bringing Be the Change to people, because it feels good and it feels right. I want to keep making films that inspire and empower. I want to make long films, short videos, podcasts, video blogs, whatever I can do to share solutions, build energy and catalyze action. And I want you to join me on this exciting journey! Indeed, I need you to join me!

Today, I launch my campaign to raise the $80,000 needed to finance the next phase of my Living Lightly Project. Like President Obama, I want to raise the required money not through a small number of big donors to whom I will be forever beholden, nor through government grants requiring me to do more report writing than filmmaking. No, I want to fund my Films for Change campaign one small donation at a time. I want 1,000 donations of $80, or 2,000 donations of $40. Of course, I won’t say no to larger donations – just keep it under a million, okay? If you believe it is essential to have passionate, independent voices telling honest, unvarnished stories, I ask you to step up, join in and become a committed supporter of Films for Change through the Living Lightly Producers Circle.

When you join the Producers Circle, you won’t get a sticker, a pen or a certificate. Instead, you will get an experience and join a community. In the short term, you will get a chance to participate in the making of my next big film, and what could be more appropriate? It’s called (for now at least) Powerful.

Powerful: Energy Security for Everyone, is a film about energy and power. Powerful will showcase the remarkable achievements and inspiring examples of people and communities promoting clean energy, renewable energy, wise use of energy, and getting empowered and re-energized in the process. It is about taking back, or perhaps discovering for the first time, the power to do more and to be more and to work within a community to accomplish more together. You can watch the trailer by CLICKING HERE.

The viewer will join me as I explore how fossil fuels and nuclear have been granted an undeserved second life by our governments – with public money – and yet renewable energy and conservation continue to receive crumbs. I am sure we can do better. I am sure we have the power to achieve a cleaner, healthier, high-employment future, and I am sure the pursuit of this future will re-energize us as individuals, strengthen our communities and revitalize politics for the common good.

I have gone a long way on a shoestring, with most of what I need already filmed, but now I need your help to complete Powerful by June. Contributions are already streaming in, but so are the bills for filming, editing, equipment, legal clearances, etc. You can help me stay ahead and keep Powerful moving towards a late-spring release by CLICKING HERE now.

But contributing money is not where your involvement ends. No way. You’ll have fun actually watching the film being made, and even more fun giving your feedback on “chapters” of the film as they get made, via the website. Members of the Producers Circle will receive a brief email notifying them whenever a new segment is ready for your viewing and comments. If you are near Ottawa, you will even be invited to a viewing of a rough cut, and possibly a focus group screening or two. I want you to get as much as possible out of your contribution.

By signing on now to be a supporter, I will regularly inform you of progress, I will send you links to some rough cuts and clips taken from the evolving film, and I will offer you a chance to offer comments and even attend a focus group session. I want to involve supporters as much as possible in the process of making the film.

Please join me in making Films for Change, today.

David Chernushenko

Click here to view the embedded video.

Powerful: Energy for Everyone 2-minute teaser

Enjoy the teaser/trailer for David Chernushenko’s recently-completed second film, Powerful: Energy for Everyone. By taking control of our energy appetites and reclaiming control of our energy supply, we can lead prosperous lives powered mostly by renewable energy, and less social and ecological harm will be done in the name of fuelling our energy needs. Who knew we had such power?

To be informed of upcoming screenings, sign up for the Newsletter

To learn about opportunities to book the film or help to broadcast or distribute it, send an email to info@livinglightly.ca

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SYNOPSIS OF POWERFUL

A documentary by David Chernushenko

Flick the switch, turn the key, press the button and then pay the bill. Multiply that by six billion and you’ve got a picture of energy consumption on Earth today. We’re hard-wired to a conventional energy system that drives our transportation, powers our communications and is the lifeline to industry and commerce. Despite the benefits, we know that this system is regrettably depleting our resources, polluting our air and affecting global climate change. Guaranteed access to energy is no longer being taken for granted and the quest for “energy security” has become the buzz-word behind global trade relations and even a justification for conflict.

Who has the power after all?

Short of moving “back to the land” and going entirely “off grid”, what’s an ordinary member of society to do?

Green economy educator, David Chernushenko isn’t quite ready to head for the hills, but he has taken the extra special step of installing solar panels to off-set some of the energy consumed by his family home. Now, if he could just be allowed to feed some of that energy back into the grid, perhaps others could do the same. But we’re not there yet and David wants to know what we can do about it. From the far side of the ocean to his own backyard, he’ll embark on a global journey to examine the alternatives to the conventional energy system and experience the critical resistance being met along the way. Tackling the spin of the big energy lobby and, equally, dispelling the myths of a “green utopia” envisioned by many, Powerful is a candid examination of what a sustainable energy-powered future may actually look like. From amazing innovators, eccentric eco-activists to average communities completely powered by renewable energy, David will begin to discover that the implications for political, economic and democratic change are right here, on our very doorsteps… or just above them.

Documentary, HD, 95 minutes

Video edited by Stan Boyle

Click here to view the embedded video.