DOWN to EARTH Magazine - English

Just like the plants and the animals we too came with a set of instructions. Only we lost ours.

Nowaten (he who listens)

“Don’t bound your heart in any way. Go with an open heart, wherever you go. Like an open door.”

Moti Ram Baiga

presents

DOWN to EARTH ONE FAMILY’S JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE KEEPERS OF THE EARTH

A film directed by Renata Heinen and Rolf Winters With the participation of NOWATEN (He who listens) and MUKWA ODE MOKOMPO OLE SIMEL LEKITI OLE MOKOMPO HARUZOU URAKAWA BALNGAYNGU MARIKA LANGANI MARIKA MOTIRAM BAIGA SUMPA DON JOSE QUISPE /UI /UKXA K!UNTA BO MARGARET CONNOLLY AKEEKWE 1H30 - Format 1:85 - Dolby 5.1

CONTENT Synopsis p. 3

Introduction p. 4

Interview With The Filmmakers p. 6

The Keepers of the Earth p. 12

The Making Of p. 14 Biographies p. 18

Credits p. 20

SYNOPSIS Leaving the rat race behind, a family embarks on the journey of a lifetime.

Together with their three children the couple travels the ends of the earth, searching for a new perspective on life and the world we live in. During their five-year adventure they end up living with different tribal communities on six continents. They record their encounters with tribal sages never filmed or interviewed before. No crew, no schedule, just one backpack and one camera each. And the curiosity to listen.

From the banks of Lake Superior in Michigan to the heart of the Amazon, from the Australian outback to the Kalahari Desert, from the Andes to the jungles of India, the family gets access to communities where film crews couldn’t.

They meet the most humble yet charismatic people one could ever wish to encounter; unknown individuals who live under the radar of our modern society.

Most of them live secluded lives in service of their community, in which they are referred to as medicine people, shamans, healers or wisdom keepers.

The film reveals the deep wisdom they find in their conversations with them and its power to transform lives. Having lived in hiding for centuries, the Keepers of the Earth see that now is the time to step forward and share their insights and wisdom with those who are ready to listen.

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INTRODUCTION NOTES DOWN to EARTH is a mirror to humanity, a poignant and timely reflection on our civilized world. The movie invites us to see the world through the eyes of the Keepers of the Earth. It takes us on an inner journey, connecting us with the source and the mutual path we are walking. DOWN to EARTH is both a wake up call and a resurgence of hope for our world to come.

When Renata Heinen and Rolf Winters made this U-turn ten years ago, all they wanted was to find a different way for their three children (2, 4 and 7) to grow up. At the time they had no idea that this was only the beginning of the journey of a lifetime - and no idea that it would lead them to make a film. The calling to make a film came three years into their journey, when they met Nowaten (‘he who listens’), a Potawatomi medicine man who lived a secluded life in the woods. The encounter with this shaman left a deep imprint. Struck by his wisdom and his ability to effortlessly tap into different levels of knowledge , it dawned on them that there must be people like Nowaten all around the world. Hidden Keepers of Wisdom, people who have held onto a connection that most of us have lost. They wondered: Could it be that those who live under the radar of our modern world - wisdom keepers - are the ones that hand us the keys to renewal, help us re-find our path?

This thought marked the beginning of DOWN to EARTH. Together with their three children, then 6, 7 and 10 years old, they embarked on a journey across all continents in search of the Keepers of the Earth.

The film is one continuous dialogue with the various Earth Keepers about life on planet Earth. In their simplicity and humility, their understanding of humankind is unparalleled. Their stories, their insights and their knowledge are as powerful as they are identical. Confronting at times, not avoiding the pain points of our human challenge, the Earth Keepers lay bare the very basics of our problems - on an individual level, on the level of community and on a global level.

Amidst the magnitude of their reflections, a message for the future emerges; an empowering and uplifting message, full of hope for us and generations to come.

The intent of the film makers is to empower audiences to reconnect - with their own spirit, with the source. Empower them to wake up from the illusion society creates; raise consciousness so we can start creating a new story together.

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INTERVIEW WITH THE FILMMAKERS

For five years you lived with native Americans and other tribal communities all around the world. What made you decide to break away from society?

Renata: Everything started to change when we became parents.

Putting this new life into the world impacted us more than we expected.

Not in terms of the practicalities of parenthood - that was easy. But to feel that you had now become part of a lineage that extends beyond your own lifetime. In a way becoming an integral part of that next generation; it really changed our awareness. It raised so many questions: Why am I doing the things I am doing? What is the real value of my achievements? It’s a matter of purpose I think. It shifted the way in which we felt connected with life and therefore also how we felt increasingly disillusioned with many aspects of our society that are just in the way of that. Being the creative independents we were, we never saw ourselves as products of our society. But taking a closer look we had to admit to ourselves that we had become participants of a system, a system we didn’t really believe in.

Was it a parental instinct that woke you up?

Rolf: That was definitely a big part of it. But there were multiple processes going on. For me personally, I had come to a stage where I started to see the patterns of the system through my work in corporate boardrooms.

The higher I came into the hierarchy of corporations, the more I became disappointed with the leadership I encountered. The lack of vision, the

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lack of understanding the bigger picture, the egotistical games that go on. Not to mention the incredible short term focus. I mean, in many corporations it has become a quarter-to-quarter focus; thinking two years out has become ‘long term thinking’. Imagine how I felt when I met these Native American chiefs who spoke about their responsibility to take decisions that will positively affect seven generations ahead.

How difficult was it to leave everything behind?

Renata: We have been asked this question many times before, but that was actually the easy part. Adjusting to a life in nature felt completely natural. We experienced a great sense of adventure and freedom to move into the unknown. Into a space where nothing is defined by a concrete plan, just to live with nature and learn. It felt really good. The hard part was coming back after five years, it was a real challenge. I can honestly say that it has taken me a few years to re-adjust.

How did your children feel about it? Didn’t you have any hesitations about taking them out of school and their stable environment?

Rolf: They were 2, 4 and 7 at the time. At that age children don’t question choices their parents make. There was no problem adjusting for them at all. Kids thrive naturally in a natural environment. The great relief for us was that parenting didn’t feel like policing any longer. The children were quick to embrace that freedom. Also, they were part of the whole process: First living in a trailer at the bank of Lake Michigan, without running water or electricity, cooking over a fire and having to bathe in the lake. Then the whole process of creating a home in the woods: cutting down trees to create space to build a house, and a little logcabin school. So for them, that was the new normal.

Did you have any worries about taking your children to some of the most remote places in the world, like the Amazon Rainforest or the Kalahari Desert?

Renata: Yes, of course... We were not going to, let’s say, your typical touristy places. We were quite seasoned travellers but this was different.

We were going to some places with conditions we never exposed ourselves to. When making plans like that, you do make a risk assessment, sure. But if we had listened to all the warnings, we would have never undertaken the journey. The medical travel consultants in the US made us sign disclaimers when we refused to take 15 shots each to protect ourselves against all kind of diseases. We managed to find many natural alternatives and only took the three most essential shots.

You said it was challenging for you to return to civilization. What about your kids, was it easy for them to be back at school?

Renata: For the girls it was really time. They had reached an age where they were ready to have more social interaction and their landing at

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school was relatively easy. In fact, they were really excited. For my son, the youngest, it was a slightly more difficult transition. He missed the woods and his Native American friends. But all in all it always amazes me how phlegmatic and adaptable children are. Looking back, I don’t think they have suffered from not having been in school for five years.

The wealth of experiences they had by living in nature, and being part of a community of really connected people, was already priceless. Let alone the year we travelled around the world, living with different tribal communities. I think that their interpretation of ‘family’ has become a much wider one than most people have. I don’t think they missed out on anything. I believe that living with their Native American family at that young age, and with tribal communities after that, will always be with them.

You had lived in the woods for some years before the idea came up to travel the world and make a film. What happened?

Rolf: It came as a vision. The idea was so big that we couldn’t comprehend it at first and so we suppressed it. Who were we to travel around the world to find and record the hidden wisdom keepers? We were no filmmakers, nor anthropologists. But the dreams and thoughts kept coming. It all started with meeting Nowaten, the main contributor in the film. I vividly remember how we felt when we met him for the first time. Here is an 80-year old medicine man, living a simple and secluded life in the woods, who is the most incredible source of wisdom we ever encountered. We were blown away by the way he seemed to effortlessly tap into a different reality, into different dimensions. Something shifted for us, in the way we looked at life. Some time passed after that meeting and that’s when the vision came. When we asked him on our next visit how he would feel about being filmed, so more people could benefit from his insights and wisdom, he didn’t answer. It took almost a year and many more meetings before he answered and accepted our request.

When he did it was the beginning of DOWN to EARTH.

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So you filmed Nowaten, but then what? How did you find those other hidden wisdom keepers or ‘Keepers of the Earth’ as you call them?

Rolf: Finding Earth Keepers is not a clear-cut road! We took a year to prepare ourselves for our journey. The people we were looking for can not be ‘googled’; they don’t have a web-profile. So we had to do it the old fashioned way, reading about tribal communities and trying to connect with people who have studied them or trying to get in touch with the so-called gate keepers of the tribe. Hundreds of phone calls and emails later, we still didn’t have one single guarantee in any place in the world that we could meet or film tribal wisdom keepers. But it did result in connections with gate keepers and a general idea where to go to.

Particularly the first months of our expedition were full of challenges.

Twice we came to a point where we considered to abort the journey and go back home. We had to overcome the initial food-related illnesses and we really had to grow into the journey as a family, as a team you could say. Everyone had to find their role and their travel rhythm I guess. In the beginning it didn’t flow at all, and our youngest just wanted to go home. Manoeuvring around tribal communities and their gate-keepers was also a skill to be learned. There were a lot of people that wanted to be filmed, but these weren’t the people we were interested in. We had to be bold, clear and learn to fully trust our own intuition. That in itself is probably one of the biggest lessons of the whole journey for me: to have that total faith.

Renata: When we started to really trust and take things as they came, that is when the magic started to happen. Everything just seemed to fall into place. In every country we managed to find a guide/translator who almost became part of the family. In hindsight it’s amazing that we did meet all the people we met.

You’ve chosen to travel with no crew, was this more difficult?

Renata: I was adamant that we would travel without a crew, just as a family. If we had travelled with a crew we would never even have gotten access to the communities we got access to. Bringing our own family into the communities helped us establish a real connection. It was this connection that also proved to be the key for the wisdom keepers to let go of their concerns about filming. Yet travelling without a crew meant that we needed to buy a camera and learn how to use it. The same goes for sound recording, things we had never done before. We both have a pretty good eye and a bit of photographic experience. But going to moving image was quite a challenge, I will admit. We practiced and experimented a lot in the year leading up to the journey. Rolf had to take a speed-course sound recording.

There were many ways you could have told the story of your journey.

The story of your family is really in the background and in the foreground are the Earth Keepers who function as the narrators. Why did you choose this narrative?

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Renata: We never planned to be in the film at all. We were only going to be behind the camera. We wanted to make a film about the Earth Keepers as we saw them through our lens. And that is what we did.

Two years after we returned from the journey, we finished our film – our ‘final cut’, we thought. We did full post production on it and took it to LA to see if we could find a distribution partner. The film was very much a meditative journey, carried by the music and Nowaten’s voice. There was not a single shot of us in this first version. We got some interest as many people liked the story and the characters. But everyone said we had made a mistake by leaving ourselves out of the film. So we reconsidered our view and took the film back into the editing room. The problem was however that we never shot any footage of ourselves, never interviewed ourselves on our journey. We tried to record interviews and mix them in, but it ruined the whole feeling of the journey, of being in the moment. We didn’t want to create a ‘talking heads film’, explaining things, but a film that touches the senses, triggering the audience on a much deeper level that the rational mind. Wisdom is not something you explain, but something you experience.

So how did you solve this problem?

Rolf: When the experiment with the interviews didn’t work, we looked for other options. Then we realized there were still 35 tapes in a bag that the children had shot on their small cameras. The plan was that they were going to make their own filmed impression of the journey, but after an initial viewing had shown that the footage was literally all over the place, the tapes had remained in the bag for two years. But when we sat down and went through it frame-by-frame, we managed to extract 15 minutes of useable material of our interactions with the people we met. So you could say that the kids saved the day; ultimately it was their footage that allowed us to tell our story. However, it did take us two and a half years to take the film apart, weave this whole new strand into the film, adding our voices in and putting the whole thing back together with music and all. I’d say that the re-editing of the film has probably been the hardest part of the whole adventure.

The whole experience of the past ten years must have had an impact on your own way of being. What is the biggest transformation that you see in yourself?

Rolf: There are many ways in which the encounters and experiences have impacted me. But I guess the most important thing for me is the unshakable faith in life. The connection I experience with the larger whole makes me very quiet and peaceful inside. Even though I still find myself sometimes aggravated when things don’t go my way, I quickly manage to re-find my balance and can accept the situation as it is. I remember that ‘all is well’. To me that kind of faith is the biggest gift of our journey, bigger than the film itself.

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So, after winning your first award on the first festival the film was shown, what are your hopes for the film?

Renata: We have made this film to share our experience with what we believe is the foundation of a sustainable world: our way of being, our mindset, our awareness of who we really are and how we fit in the bigger picture. So our hopes for the film are that it will help create that higher level of awareness with audiences. The film is not the answer, but it does raise the questions that hopefully will help people to take a step in the right direction.

Rolf: Whatever one’s beliefs, whatever one’s background, sooner or later we will all wake up to the reality that we are stuck in a story, an outdated story. If we want a sustainable future, this is where it starts: the story we believe in. Sustainability is not just a political, a technological or an economic debate. These are mere components of the solution. Real change is only going to happen with a changed mindset of you and me. We cannot delegate the immensity of the problems of the world today to our politicians or scientists. Ultimately they are only a reflection of us, the people. The time has come to create a new story, our story!

We have to re-evaluate our beliefs, our own role, take charge and work together to create and live this new story. In many different places in the world this is already happening, but we need to increase the pace, accelerate the awakening and grow the participation. This is what DOWN to EARTH is about.

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THE KEEPERS OF THE EARTH Before our journey we considered various geographical areas on different continents where we believed we would find people who have retained a natural balance and live in harmony with their surroundings.

There was no shortlist or even names when we set out on our journey.

We decided intuitively who to film as they came onto our path travelling around the world. In most cases they were not keen to be filmed and some were very much against the idea at first. But as we spent more time with them, living as a family in their midst, the trust grew and ultimately they all embraced the idea.

These earthly characters are the message in the way they live their lives.

Unaffected by man-made laws, man-made religion or the distorting layers of the ego, they share a clear and transcendent vision on life on planet Earth. Having lived in hiding for centuries, these medicine men and women know that now is the time to step forward to share their insights and wisdom with those who are ready to listen.

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The characters in the film are unknown individuals who live under the radar of our modern society. Most of them live secluded lives in service of their community.

They are referred to in their communities as medicine people, wisdom keepers, shamans, healers or spiritual leaders. We chose the term ‘Keepers of the Earth’ as we felt it was the right way to describe the characters in DOWN to EARTH. Not only are they incredibly humble and ‘down-toearth’ individuals, but they are also the connectors between the other realms and our life on Earth, between the physical and nonphysical worlds. In reality we all live in multiple dimensions all the time, it’s just that shamans are aware of existing in multiple dimensions. Through that connection they can access much more information, reclaiming it for themselves and assisting others in reclaiming what has been abandoned in other realities.

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THE MAKING OF - Capturing The Journey

What was your approach in capturing the Earth Keepers to create the magic that we experience watching the film?

Renata: I think that a big part of the result you feel when watching the film has more to do with the unique setting than with specific camera or lighting skills. I believe that the energy of the recordings of the characters in the film is so special because of the intimacy. We filmed every individual in their natural environment, the place they would normally sit, with naturally available light. Mostly it wasn’t really an interview. You couldn’t call it that. Often it was more like a ‘listening session’, where we would hardly ask any questions. In many cases we cut out the interpreter because it interrupted the flow. We had to connect on a different level than the level of language. We would only really find out what we had recorded after we got it translated line by line afterwards. In hindsight these sessions delivered the best sequences.

Without much filmmaking experience, no crew and a low budget, how did you manage to make a film to such a high standard and production value?

Rolf: We reckoned that it was more important to capture that intimacy than having the perfect shot. I’m not a techie and have a love-hate relationship with the camera and recording equipment. But we decided that it was better to be fully in the experience as a family and accept some hiccups or wobbles, rather than losing the intimacy by bringing a crew. I think we have been extremely lucky, considering the limited technical knowledge we have, to have managed to film for a year without any major hiccups. Fortunately it was only after the journey that I started to feel the weight of the responsibility to have been trusted by the Earth Keepers with their story, their message for humanity. At the time of our encounters with them it was all very low key. We were just sitting and chatting, whilst we let the camera run. It wasn’t about the camera at all, it often felt as if it wasn’t even there.

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But the film is much more than the wisdom keepers talking.

Yes, that’s right. We wanted to create an experience and not make a cognitive film, aimed at proving a point. To capture the journey across the globe, the big challenge was to get the big wides; beautiful nature shots but without using any cranes, planes or other fancy film maker toys.

You can only go so far with a tripod. To get the aerials that would give the film it’s cinematic feel, we had to be very creative to generate these shots.

Can you be more explicit about the level of creativity involved?

Rolf: We tried out all kinds of things, not hindered by any knowledge. One could say that the aerial shots of the film were shot in a very unorthodox way. Without the budget for a glass-bottom plane, we shot all the aerials in America over Hiawatha Forest and Lake Superior from a powered parachute. And the signature shot of the film, flying over the Namib Desert, was the most adventurous. We had tried to shoot it from a plane window but it didn’t work. I shared my frustration with the pilot and jokingly said that he would need to take out the door of the plane to make it work. To my surprise he said: “we can do that”. The next morning he arrived with a screwdriver and took out the door before take-off. It allowed me to point my camera down whilst hanging out of the small airplane. But only after the pilot had strapped me to the back of the plane with a bungee-jump cord, just in case I would be pulled out by the air pressure.

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THE MAKING OF - Constructing The Film How did you go about crafting a story from 200 hours of raw footage?

Rolf: The editing was the most difficult part of the process. First of all the translation of all the footage was an incredible amount of work. It took us almost a year to get all the translations finalized, with some of the tribal languages only having very few translators. When everything was scripted, we ended up with a stack of transcripts the size of a telephone book. But where do you start? Shamans talk in stories and in the beginning we had no idea how to start cutting into stories that on average run for ten to twenty minutes. The first cut we made was actually on paper. We started literally cutting out snippets and ended up with a whole room full with stacks of paper snippets. From that the leading themes and the first storyline evolved.

Did you edit yourselves?

Renata: We have done a lot of editing ourselves but we are very fortunate to have been able to work with two great film editors who both felt attracted to the project. Even though we have been in charge of the choice of the themes and the construction of the story, we couldn’t have done it without them. Both editors have contributed a lot to the weft of the story. We made the first cut with Award-winning editor Andrew Quigley, who is very gifted in structuring and creating the different layers.

We still love that first cut. Where many directors do it afterwards, you could say we first made the so-called ‘director’s cut’. But then, based on the audience and industry feedback, we decided to add our own story to the film. That’s when Sahil Gill came on board as editor. We initially told him we needed some help for a couple of months with some changes to an existing film. Well, that became a process of no less than three years!

Pulling the puzzle apart and trying to fit the new pieces in... they didn’t fit at all at first. It was a long process of creating and re-creating. It was like sculpturing; reworking the film, layer after layer.

The music is an important part of the whole film experience. How did you get Stephen Warbeck involved in the project?

Rolf: He came on board early on. We got in touch with Stephen shortly after our journey, through the new school of our children. Our daughters happened to be in the same class as his daughters. When he heard about the project, he asked us to show him a rough cut. After the viewing he offered to write the score for the film. The fact that he came on board was an incredible gift to the project. Not only did it instantly lift the profile of the project, but working with him was also a real joy. Stephen is a most humble and down-to-earth character, and an amazing listener. He has almost as little ego as the Earth Keepers.

Renata: Things just fell amazingly into place, once again. I realize that we have been very demanding. We didn’t make it easy for him but he stayed committed throughout the whole process and has been incredibly generous with his support for a process that took so much longer than anticipated.

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INTERVIEW WITH OSCAR-WINNING COMPOSER STEPHEN WARBECK Being a very sought-after film composer, what made you decide to work on a low-budget film like DOWN to EARTH? Each time I choose to work on a project I am looking for something new in it, a new creative challenge. DOWN to EARTH met those criteria. I have not come across a piece of work which so dramatically combines the personal and the universal.

Can you describe how you went about creating the soundtrack for the film? When did you come on board? Can you describe the process?

The film was still in the editing stage. I watched the rough cut with Rolf and Renata and we started to talk about the way we would approach the music. We wanted to create a language which took no account of boundaries but borrowed elements from the musical cultures of the different indigenous cultures. But also from electronics and from Western orchestral tradition. In the studio, we worked with a core group of instrumentalists who provided the main part of the palette. After the recording stage we worked with music editor and programmer Kirsty Whalley and started to put the different elements together.

How did you come to the choice of the instruments that are used in the soundtrack?

Each geographic place the film visits provided us with inspiration for this.

Although we never wanted to mimic the music of a particular country or region, we would selectively borrow aspects to serve the overall concept of the soundtrack.

How was the collaboration with first time filmmakers Renata & Rolf?

Working on a project where there is such a vital connection between the filmmakers and the subject – on a personal, political and spiritual level – meant that I felt a particular responsibility to be as truthful as I could to their vision.

I “I have not come across a piece of work which so dramatically combines the personal and the universal.”

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BIOGRAPHY FILMMAKERS ROLF WINTERS, filmmaker

Rolf has his professional roots in the corporate world. His incessant drive to understand and make better use of human potential led him to found his own leadership consulting firm at the age of 30. The following 10 years he travelled Europe as a boardroom consultant and coach, working for some of the largest corporations in the world.

Through his in-depth experiences with leaders and decision making at the top of the corporate pyramid, Rolf also gained an insight into the stranglehold our established structures have on organisations and their leaders; the damaging effects of their short-term focus and their lack of a holistic vision. He started searching for a different perspective and a key to renewal. When he was exposed to the leadership principles and the way of life of the Anishnabe (first Native Americans), he felt he had found that key.

The Native American vision on life and their way of being resonated so strongly with him and his wife that they left their successful cosmopolitan life behind.

They retreated for four years with their three young children into the woods of Upper Michigan in order to gain a deeper understanding of the wisdom and heritage of the Native Americans. After those four years, he decided to go with his family on a year-long journey around the world, in search for the Keepers of the Earth.

Rolf continues his work with leaders around the world, now integrating the wisdom and insights he gained from the Keepers of the Earth.

RENATA HEINEN, filmmaker Renata Heinen studied communications in Antwerp. After her studies she decided to follow her true calling: the path of a self-made, freespirited artist, expressing herself in word and image. Her versatility manifests in many different art forms: from painting on life-size canvas and found materials to metal sculptures and from writing to her current adventures in filmmaking.

Living in London in her twenties, she felt drawn to the world of film and worked for a few years as an actress. It was during this period that she started writing screenplays for film. She wrote her first screenplay Walking Wounded in 2003. She has directed her most recent screenplay, Life, herself, which will be released in 2016. Renata’s raw and uncompromising writing style is a result of her drive for pure intuitive storytelling, whereby the mind only plays a secondary role. Her search for true originality and values also finds its way in her art.

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Renata’s desire not to conform to society’s common denominator became the drive behind the search for a change of rhythm and lifestyle for her and her family. Her encounter with the Native Americans and their connected way of life was an obvious fact. For four years she lived with her partner and their three small children in the woods of Upper Michigan, enjoying a life closer to nature and learning from the Native American wisdom. When they got the vision to travel the world to make a film about the Keepers of the Earth, it was the ultimate project where she could bring her various roles and professional skills together in a totally open-ended adventure. With her years of experience as a storyteller and screenplay writer, Renata’s desire was to create the weft and capture the spirit of the journey. Her aim was to ensure that the film would primarily be an experience, using all cinematic means to convey the energy and connectedness of the Earth Keepers.

STEPHEN WARBECK, muziek componist

Stephen Warbeck is one of the most successful British film composers. He began studying piano and composing at the age of four, and by his mid- teens he had developed an affinity for rock ‘n’ roll as well as for theatre.

He is known for his work on Shakespeare In Love directed by John Madden (1998), for which he won an Oscar for Best Original Score. Other notable scores which Stephen has composed are Billy Elliott by Stephen Daldry (2000), Captain Corelli’s Madolin by John Madden (2001), Birthday Girl by Jez Butterworth (2001). In 2013 he won a BAFTA award for Best Original Score in TV for HENRY IV. Among Stephen’s most recent works are the French movies Mon Roi (2015) and Polisse directed by Maïwenn (2011), or Keeping Rosy by Steve Reeves (2014).

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A CALL TO ACTION Dear Reader, DOWN to EARTH is not just the launch of a film. It’s the launch of a thought, a vision for the future. Rather than continuing the aim to change the system or the mindset of its leaders, our aim is to generate people-powered change from the ground up: unlocking the potential of the common people. The message of the Earth Keepers in the film is very clear: WE ARE NOT POWERLESS! We do not depend on anyone to manifest our impact. We are masters of our own destiny and together we can change the dialogue, change the paradigm and create a new story.

DOWN to EARTH vision DOWN to EARTH is more than a film. It is a call to action. It is not designed to be consumed, but to be worked with! The film represents an ideology, which will help us to leave a better world for future generations. The film makes us aware of the fact that we are all Earth Keepers. You could see the film as the beginning of a new dialogue with ourselves and with the community (groups, family and organisations) of which we are a part. From that awareness starts a dialogue from which we can gain insights about our own role and develop initiatives that matter, however big or small. We do not have to come up with large worldchanging concepts. It is important that we move, we release ourselves from the (thinking) patterns in which we are stuck and make a change.

An open invitation We want to support this movement actively and for this purpose we have established the DOWN to EARTH Collective, a social enterprise facilitating and accelerating the awakening and needed transformation; providing an array of programs and a platform supporting people and communities on their way back to being responsible Earth Keepers. We do this by facilitating change through shifting consciousness and empowering people in the three areas where one’s personal development is nurtured the most: at home, at school and at work. Not only are these three environments the biggest influencers on our views and mindset, but also the environments where we as individuals can make the most impact. We are engaged in developing specific programs for various target groups such as parents, teachers, pupils, students as well as for leaders of corporations and institutions.

If you want to be part of this journey and would like to contribute to help making a change please contact us via www.downtoearthfilm.com The journey continues.

Renata, Rolf & The DTE team.

www.downtoearthfilm.com

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