Home Place; Exploring Human Ecology

This is a "quadrilogy" of superbly creative and beautiful science films in video format, each 26 minutes in length. Clearly these are educational films for high school and adult audiences. These films explore and describe the meaning of the ecocentric valuation perspective of the Earth.

Quote from program prologue:
"There is a place in the universe unlike any other....a modest blue-and-white planet circling a very lonely star. It's the only place we know of - with oceans of liquid water, and an atmosphere rich in oxygen. It's the only place we know of - which has created the magical essence called life. Of twenty million life forms, a species called man has grown so powerful that it threatens the creativity of the planet. That species is now searching for a new understanding of its relationship with Earth....its only HOME PLACE"

Film No. 1. Inside-Outside
Explores the problem of recognizing and understanding ecosystems from within their boundaries. Images of Earth from space have provided us with a view from outside, making possible a new, more complete perspective. This program discards the human-centered concept of "environment," replacing it with the more universal idea of "ecosystems." The Ecosphere concept is introduced as an alternative world view, in which Earth itself is conceived as living...as an Ecological Being.

Film No. 2. Life Cycles
Explores the problems encountered when we try to distinguish between living and non-living parts of the Earth. Attributes of organisms which are recognized as being characteristic of "life." are also found in larger systems...ecosystems and the Earth itself. Everything on Earth is linked by the cycling of matter and flows of energy...making it impossible to distinguish living from non-living parts. Life is a property of Earth, expressed in organisms and other incredible phenomena.

Film No. 3. Partnerships
Explores the challenges faced by industrial societies as the shift from the present damaging, exploitive relationship with Earth ecosystems towards a comre sustainable partnership. The program shows how ancient cultures vanished because they lived beyond their ecological means, and shows clearly that present agricultural, forestry and fishery practices have us on the same course. Modern developments in ecologically based forestry illustrate the kind of partnership which is possible if ecosystem needs are respected.

Film No. 4. Going Home
Explores the aspects of living in an industrial society which cut us off from the natural ecosystems that sustain our lives. We are insulated by cocoons of cultural myth which affect the way we see and understand the world, and by cocoons of technology which insulate our senses from the natural world. The result is insensitivity to the Earth and a perpetual decline in human health and well-being. The human species has become an alien within its own Home Place. Personal remedies are found in activities which help us reconnect with the Earth.

Cinematography: Robert J. Long, President, Waterhen Films
Host: J. Stan Rowe
Narration: Liona Boyd
Producers: Karen P. Henders and Rob
Also: sound specialists, various consultants and coordinators

Purchase Price: $30(US) each; $100(US) per set of four.
Obtainable from:
Waterhen Film Productions Ltd.,
P.O. Box 69,
Balgonie, Saskatchewan S0G 0E0
Canada
Tel: (306) 771-2713
Email: bob@earthseeker.com

Other Ecocentric Texts