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News from
Tribe of Heart, Producers of PEACEABLE KINGDOM: THE JOURNEY HOME and THE WITNESS

Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home
wins Best Feature Documentary award
at Peace on Earth Film Festival
PK at POEFF
Q&A
laurel laurel laurel Laurel laurel laurel laurel

Peace and environmental communities are embracing
Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home

Dear friends,

Does aspiring to a life of nonviolence include consideration of the individuality and inherent worth of nonhuman animals? According to Chicago’s Peace on Earth Film Festival, it surely does.

Chicago Cultural CenterOn February 27th, more than 300 people attended a standing-room-only screening of Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home at the Chicago Cultural Center, and several dozen more waited patiently in line but unfortunately had to be turned away for lack of space. The festival gave our film a superb time slot, Saturday at 8:15 PM, and would later bestow upon it the Best Feature Documentary award.

Equally significant, the audience gave the film a standing ovation and offered their heartfelt appreciation during the Q&A that followed, and in their written comments that we collected after the screening. You can read a sampling of their responses in the right column of this newsletter, and watch a short video of the highlights of our participation in the festival here.PK at POEFF

On Sunday afternoon, documentary subject Harold Brown participated in the festival’s Peacemakers’ Panel. The moderator opened and closed the event with a reference to Howard Lyman’s statement at the end of Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home, when he says:

Lyman
Howard Lyman

“We are here, in my opinion, as homo sapiens on this planet to learn one thing. And that one thing is unconditional love. Not unconditional love just for humans, not unconditional love just for the environment, but unconditional love for our entire community on this planet.”

Harold built on this theme and spoke eloquently about what it means to practice the golden rule, as well as the need to embrace and educate--rather than judge and dismiss--those who are simply unaware of how their actions are impacting others.

Peace Panel
Harold Brown, Will Williams

Fellow panelist Will Williams, a Viet Nam veteran and nationally known peace activist who is featured in the documentary The Good Soldier, picked up on the theme of the golden rule. He spoke of his study of history, which revealed to him how so many wars that we have considered justified had their roots in our failing at some point in the past to treat others as we would wish to be treated.

Judge Sophia H. Hall had come to the festival to share her work in the field of restorative justice, which seeks to replace the failed concepts of crime and punishment. She described how the fabric of community could be restored by bringing victims and victimizers together with a focus on restitution and reconciliation. She shared the idea of the “platinum rule,” which she defined as treating others not as we would wish to be treated, but as they would wish to be treated.

awardThe embrace of Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home by this visionary festival, which is devoted to a holistic model of working toward peace, was an inspiring experience for all of us involved in making the film. This festival’s diverse program helped us appreciate that while the path to peace may start in many places, and focus on many different issues, the destination is always the same: awakening conscience, protecting the innocent, and restoring personal, social and ecological balance. We thank executive director of the Peace on Earth Film Festival, Nick Angotti, as well as his fellow review committee members, Clayton Monical, John D. Hancock, Dan Nurczyk, and Milissa Pacelli, for an unforgettable experience. We also extend our gratitude to Marla Rose and John Beske of EarthSave Chicago and Vadim Moskalin of ChicagoVeg for their help with publicity, which was instrumental in making this event such a success.

We are thrilled to find that, along with the peace community, a growing number of folks in the environmental community are now expressing interest in Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home. Everything we have seen so far suggests that this film is capable of engaging and inspiring people from all walks of life who might previously have avoided or rejected the issues it explores. As we move into the next leg of our film festival run and work toward the film’s release on DVD, we are ever grateful to those whose support and encouragement made it possible for this film to be created, as well as those whose generosity will make it possible for us to realize its tremendous potential.

Warm wishes,
James LaVeck and Jenny Stein
Co-founders, Tribe of Heart

TOH creative team

Left to right: Filmmakers Jenny Stein and James LaVeck,
film subject Harold Brown, associate producers
Kevin Smith and Eric Huang


Tribe of Heart needs your support now, more than ever, to keep the momentum moving and to develop the resources and support needed to launch the DVD, along with associated outreach programs. Please help us bring this incredible tool to people who are eager to put it to use in communities around the world!

Donate

Donations can be made online or mailed to:
Tribe of Heart, PO Box 149, Ithaca, NY 14851

 

Peace on Earth Film Fest

Audience Comments at Chicago's Peace on Earth Film Festival

Speechless. Better than ‘well done.’ Impacted me to my core.

Thank you for this remarkable film. I was somewhat cynical at the outset, expecting an overly sentimental look at animal welfare. You’ve produced something much more — a difficult and incisive look at what it means to treat another being with dignity. Your stress on the notion of individuality is what strikes me as the most powerful. We should act based not on the emotions inspired within us exactly, but on our understanding of what the objects of our actions are capable of — in particular, their self-willed potentialities. So well done!

A reminder that intelligence and heart is not exclusively embodied in human form.

A great moral tale. We must take action.

This film has changed my thought process. Thank you.

I was moved by the compassion and thoughtful dialogue presented in this eye-opening film. The footage of the exchange between the animals and caretakers was so extraordinary. Thank you for this important work.

A work of profound beauty and humanity.

A wonderful film – very humbling and thought provoking. I learned a lot.

An extremely important film, created with amazing sensitivity... Like so many, I have not listened to my better instincts. Thanks to your film, I will make sure my grandchildren learn to love and appreciate animals.

Beautiful — well made — speaks the truth in a way that no one can ignore. Thank you.

An amazing, wonderful film. Beautifully shot and edited. Great story – goes straight to the heart!

This film was very eye-opening and more importantly, heart and mind opening for me. I have been trying to stop eating meat, and this film has helped me take another step in that direction.

Thanks for a moving experience and for the encouragement to have the courage to do the right thing.


calf running
Watch a preview of
Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home

Visit the film's official web site


environmental film fest

Join us in Washington, DC
Sat., March 27 at 12:15 PM

Environmental Film Festival
in the Nation's Capital

Carnegie Institution, 1530 P St. NW
followed by Q&A with filmmakers
Jenny Stein & James LaVeck
and film subject Harold Brown
FREE Event

Carnegie InstitutionThe 18th annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital will be held March 16-28, showing 130 films at more than 50 venues around Washington, DC. The vital connections between food and the environment will be a special theme of this year's festival.

Click here for an evite with complete details that can also be shared with your friends in the DC area.

facebookIf you are on Facebook and plan to attend, let us know, and invite your Facebook friends, too!


Canada FF

Vancouver, BC, Canada
Sun., March 21 at 4:40 PM

Canada International Film Festival
Edgewater Casino
311-750 Pacific Blvd. South
Tickets: $7 (purchase here)

Click here for an evite with complete details that can also be shared with your friends in Vancouver.

facebookIf you are on Facebook and plan to attend, let us know, and invite your Facebook friends, too!


Tribe of Heart logoTribe of Heart is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that produces award-winning, life-changing films about the journey of awakening conscience and the ethics of the human-animal relationship.

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