omocop media book

one man, one cow, one planetmedia book

c l o u d S o u t h F i l m swww.cloudsouth.co.nz i n f o @ c l o u d s o u t h . c o . n z89 clarence Street, ponsonby, auckland, new Zealand

c o n t e n t S

cReatIVe cow - - - - - - - 4

HUB paGeS - - - - - - - 10

eco walK tHe talK - - - - - - 14

BacKYaRD BIoDYnamIcS - - - - - 16

nZ on ScReen - - - - - - - 17

ImBD - - - - - - - - - 18

4 cloUD SoUtH FIlmS a R t I c l e S

A Tale of Cows, People, Passion and High Techby Barbara Summer Burstyn

Tom Burstyn & Barbara Summer Burstyn Document the Story of Saving Some of the World’s Poor Families, One Cow at a Time

creative cow, 2007URl: http://magazine.creative-cow.net/article/a-tale-of-cows-peo-ple-passion-and-high-tech

Article Focus:After we remarked in the January/February 2007 issue that this would be the year of the COW, Barbara Summer Burstyn wrote to tell us about the film she and her husband Tom had made, with cows playing a central role in its theme. It’s a fasci-nating story that sheds light on the challenges of documentary filmmaking.

We wanted a way to combine our talents. Tom is a cinematographer with nearly 70 films and mini-series to his credit, including an Emmy® nomination as DP on The 4400. I’m a journalist who used to work for the main newspaper in New Zealand.

Peter Proctor (left), one of the pioneers of bio-dynamic farming, interviewed by cin-ematographer Tom Burstyn (right), who captures Peter’s story on his Sony HDV Z1U, as they pass through the Indian countryside by train.

You could say our doco work is our love child. While we have 5 kids between us we didn’t want anymore and have turned that energy into making a particular kind of “emotional doco” as an exten-sion of ourselves.

This one just seemed to happen. We bought a book on biodynamics as a guide for our 10-acre farm in New Zealand. Then we discovered that the author, Peter Proctor, lived near us and he was planning to move full-time to India. We called him up and asked if we could make a little film about him. Peter instantly agreed, with no knowledge of who we were at all.

We called the finished film “How to Save the World: One Man, One Cow, One Planet.” It’s about Peter, about the use of cow manure to make the compost that restores life to depleted soils, and the connection between western agricultural practices and India.

A PASSAGE TO INDIA

As a journalist I’ve always gone into dicey situations with openness. It’s about your attitude. When you have a deep sense of curiosity, people warm to that and don’t try to block you. Wherever we went, it worked. We found no one suspicious of us.

We have had a couple of film school grads work for us and I noticed they bring a well-honed skill set with them and not much else. If you aspire to independent filmmaking you have to bring more than your skills to the work. You must bring your humanity.

While it’s good to have the technical aspects sorted out, who you are comes through in every frame. Our most important preparation for the trip was being real human beings.

The unobtrusive little Sony HDV Z1U camera was also a big help. Crossing borders is easy with camera gear that looks amateur. No carnets or bonds, no excess baggage, everything into the boot of a taxi. Our carry-on is a camera backpack, empty save for the camera and inflight reading material.

The rest of our gear was two mics - a Lavalier radio and a shotgun - a tripod and a light. We used our single 250w soft-light to augment existing lighting rather than as a key light, and a range of pre-cut gels. And seven batteries. Tom says he went overboard, but we never ran out of power. Shooting days, we took what we needed in the backpack, and maybe the tripod.

The camera was set-up once, when bought, and never adjusted again. We found the settings that gave the highest quality, least-processed output and left them there in the PP1 menu. All we worried about was not missing the moment and prayed to the gods of sharp focus and clear audio.

cloUD SoUtH FIlmS a R t I c l e S 5

We started the trip with only the rough idea to make a film about an amazing old man. Obsessed by cows and their central role in the development of humanity, at almost 80 he decided to leave the comfort of his New Zealand home and move to India.

We arrived a few months later and followed him around India for three weeks. We found an organic revolution surging across that complex landscape. Our elderly hero was mobbed like a rock-star wherever he went as he showed marginal farmers how to make the compost that would restore the soil stripped of nutrients by chemical farming.

BACK HOME FOR THE REAL WORK

Of course we hit a brick wall when we got into the editing room with our new Mac, Final Cut Pro, and 48 hours of footage, none of it logged properly. We’d been lazy, and overwhelmed by the gigan-tic flow of life in India. We had no structure, and we argued long into the night over the minutiae of a sequence and its meaning.

In the end we decided to use our physical journey as the timeline to build the film on; politics, arcane beliefs and techniques, cows and their manure, and the obsession of our main character, all clustered upon this slim thread.

It was only as we plowed through all 48 hours of material we discovered there was a bigger story: the intrinsic link from western agriculture to the marginal farmer in India. We didn’t start with that realization; it was something that played out on the screen. Our journey is the audience’s journey.

TELLING THE STORY

We had our story. Now we had to find a way to tell it. The first job was to provide subtitles translat-ing the English of India into western English. I did it myself, and it was a lot of work. We preserved India’s colloquial language when we could, but when it was really tortured we took the spirit of what they were saying and made it Western. It’s a balance between respecting the speakers, expecting the viewer to make some effort, and still keeping everyone happy.

To finish, we needed a narrator and music. We exploited all our contacts to find a way to attract our narrator, Peter Coyote. His work as an activist predates his acting, and he liked what he saw as our film was taking shape. He hooked us up with his local studio, arranged a cut-price deal and sat in front of the mic in San Francisco while we listened in on the phone in New Zealand. He has deferred his own fee until the film makes enough money to pay him.


Music was more of a gamble. We wanted Mercan Dede, a Turkish-born turntablist and DJ now based in Montreal. He integrates his electronic trance music with traditional acoustic instruments from around the world, a sound so unique that nothing else would do for us. So we laid his music over a sequence from the film. Then, through a friend of a friend of a friend, we found his contact informa-tion and sent it to him. He loved it, and amazingly offered us his music for free.

Distribution is our next hurdle. We hear all the time that we’re fragmenting as a society, that there is no mass market, and that communities-of-kind are the new market frontier. Let’s hope that’s true. So far so good!

Our story is about real people, whose humanity is very recognizable


The target market for our film has welcomed it generously. It’s also broad enough to intrigue every cow-loving, organicesque urban/suburbanite.

In truth we started out as greenwashed chardonnay socialists. By the end, we were committed believ-ers. And perhaps that’s the key to the success of our film. We trusted the process and by some miracle found our film along the way.

LESS MONEY = MORE FREEDOM

We paid for the trip out of our savings. We made the decision to forgo paying off our mortgage or buying a second home or having a holiday. We have consciously downsized our lives, reduced our consumption spending, drive one very small car and many other lifestyle changes to make this film and the others we have planned. I guess we are putting our money where our mouth is.

Having to fund everything by ourselves gave us freedom. Mainstream filmmaking has to reach main-stream audiences. Ideas and scripts are tailored to attract money and distribution. The money owns you and your story, the way you tell it, and how it is seen. But as we increasingly own the means and distribution via the Internet and other community-activated schemes, we take control of our own media environment.

Taking control of storytelling and the tools are of course Creative COW guiding principles. As the reality sinks in of what we can achieve as storytellers facilitated by technology, we’ll see the phe-nomenal growth of real documentaries.

Barbara Sumner Burstyn is a journalist whose awards include the 2004 Qantas Media Awards Social Issues Columnist of the Year and finalist 2004 Qantas Media Awards Columnist of the Year. For a list of Tom Burstyn’s accomplishments, see his IMDB.com entry. Barbara and Tom commute between Canada and New Zealand.

THE RESPONSE

With no formal distribution, the film has been seen in Cambodia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK, and India. All of those are in Eng-lish. A farming group in Indonesia are doing a translation themselves, and will be spreading the film there.


Veteran network DP Tom Burstyn on his increasing transition from 35mm film to digital HD...

After 30+ years as a cinematographer, I was dragged kicking and screaming into my first HD production. I was used to shooting in 35mm, after all. Videotape was beneath me: the stuff of news-cameramen and home videos. But, while colorizing I realized that I actually liked the pictures and I liked the idea of how they were created.

A few years ago while testing a new stock for Kodak I was given a tour of the Eastman facility in Rochester. I was struck by the enormity of the operation, and how much precision, effort and pollution went into manufacturing and processing a roll of film. Beautiful and roman-tic images, but all of a sudden the entire production process seems an-tiquated, a refinement of 19th-centry technology.

Now here’s HD, making images with sensors and edited with com-puters. Clean, streamlined, logical. Of course in practice that’s not the case, not yet. The gear is clumsy, and the latitude and depth that film offers is not fully there. But you can see it coming.

If the 16mm/35mm filmmaking process is at the pinnacle of refinement, then HD is in the pioneer-ing stage. On the big films, we’re still working on production workflow out in the field and the guys in white coats are designing smaller and better cameras.

Look at the Viper for instance. It has great latitude and fantastic resolution; it’s small and robust (lousy viewfinder though). I’ve taken it from the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest to the deserts of Inner Mongolia and I can tell you it’s pretty much bulletproof.

I began to use our Sony HDV Z1U as an insert camera on bigger productions, learning its quirks and qualities. The caliber of our little camera was proven after its footage was included in a few mini-series and a feature film. When output to 35 and projected on a big screen it looked good. Not 35, but good. The HDV image has its own integrity and aesthetic.

Long live digital technologies!


Peter Proctor: Singing The Song Of SustainabilityBy Shalini Kagal

In the very country where Mahatma Gandhi composed the strains of non-vio-lence to win freedom, there’s a symphony that’s being orchestrated by one man – and it’s all about sustainability.

Hubpages, 2007URl: http://hubpages.com/hub/Peter-Proctor


Because he cares. Yes, Peter Proctor cares – and this caring goes beyond the farmers and their plight. He cares about the planet and what we as humans are doing to denigrate it. He cares enough to say, ‘Enough!’ and to do his bit to work in tandem with Nature, not against it. He cares enough to want to try and bring back the beauty of balance that Nature should ideally have. To repair the delicate web of interdependence that all creatures in the world should be connected with.

It all starts with a bucket of dung – cow dung. One Man, One Cow, One Planet - the DVD is about how one man approaching 80 might just turn the tide when it comes to the stranglehold that large international corporations have on agriculture around the world. They call him the ‘father of biody-namics’ and he points the way to the true meaning of ‘the green revolution’ – not with the corporate giants’ answers to unlimited agricultural growth but farming in tune with Nature, built on the themes of sustainability and self sufficiency.

I hadn’t heard about him till a few days ago. Living in our ivory towers, very often oblivious to what happens outside of our own world, cocooned in a safe and comfortable island of family, friends and comfortable living, what happens outside is very often sadly overlooked, never mind how im-portant and how revolutionary it is. We tell ourselves it should be different, we try – but it’s never quite enough and living far out of our comfort zone needs a lot more dedication. Sitting out on our terrace one evening, watching the dogs play, my husband’s cousin who had just wound up working in Singapore and was back in India announced that he was going to attend a four-day Peter Proctor workshop. The name rang a bell, vaguely - but I had no idea what exactly it was all about. Then he went on to tell me about the work this incredible man was doing and I was amazed.

In our own small way in our pocket-sized garden, we practice organic gardening – letting the neem tree leaves that fall keep the soil pest-free, spraying the plants and fruit trees with tobacco and crab apple flower solutions. What Peter Proctor was doing however, was starting a revolution – quietly and effectively at the grassroots level of agricultural India. Why did this man come all the way from New Zealand braving the heat and dust of rural India to start a movement that would take on the might of multinationals and their juggernaut on its way to control everything we eat and drink? Why would a man who is partially deaf, with one glass eye, an opera buff, who doesn’t particularly like spicy Indian curry come halfway across the world to try and save debt-ridden Indian farmers from the clutches of corporations like Monsanto?


Most Indian farmers own a cow for milk and a bull to pull the plough. So the cow dung needed to sing the song of sustainability is easy enough to come by. Peter Proctor puts into practice what the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner advocated almost a century ago. Though the Steiner theory of biodynamics might be a bit esoteric on reading, when it is put into practice, it becomes eminently practical.

Peter Proctor’s book, Grasp the Nettle explains how it all works. The cow dung is used to create com-post and it has to be prepared in a particular way. It involves CPP or Cow Pat Pits where the cow dung is layered in pits. One preparation involves the dung being put into cow horns and then being buried. It is left in these pits right through winter after which the crumbly textured mix it turns into is mixed with water and sprayed on the crops. This preparation enables the plant to hold on the moisture for longer and helps the roots go deeper. The experiments are a total success – farms that have adopted this method have healthier and juicier crops.


Little wonder that Peter Proctor is almost venerated by the rural Indian farmer, many of whom have wiped out their debts and shed the yoke of corporate control thanks to following his ‘back to Nature’ philosophy. When they hear he’s visiting, they come from miles around, sitting around him with their ubiquitous cell phones, waiting to hear the words of wisdom that fall from his mouth about the state of the soil. After all, it’s because of him that thousands of Indian farmers have stopped using chemi-cal fertilizers and pesticides and have adopted biodynamics as a way of life.

Maybe it was easier in India than anywhere else in the world. After all, the cow has always been worshipped and it was easy enough to make them see why this way was so much better. Cow dung has traditionally had a number of uses in India – made into cakes and burnt as fuel, mixed with water and applied on floors to prevent insects from coming into the home and to manufacture biogas. And maybe the typical small holding Indian farmer was in tune with his land – and his cow of course – to realize that the so called green revolution, ushered in by the global pesticide manufacturers, only resulted in polluting the soil, poisoning it as well as the ground water. Unlike many other places in the world, the harsh effects of chemical farming were much more visible much sooner. With over half the population in India depending on agriculture, this was devastating!

Maybe that’s why Peter Proctor can be seen working among the rural farmers of India - maybe it was so much easier to convince people who lived in close communion with the land rather than farmers in more western-ized societies where it takes much longer for the ill effects of chemical farming to be felt. Maybe when the holdings are small and so much depends on it, there’s a sensitivity to the soil and its needs – and an awareness of when things are good and in harmony with the rest of nature.

So it’s little wonder that many of these farmers look upon him as a Gandhi come to life. He has stood globalization on its head and he’s spreading the message of small holdings and a sustainable long term approach to farming versus short term profits and a systematic raping of the land. He’s helped that small farmer tune in to the rhythm of the land once more. The way things are going, it’s going to be an anthem of agriculture that the nation is going to reverberate with very soon – and from here, hopefully the world will soon be singing along too!


Can One man and One cow Save our Planet?: Seeding the real Green Revolution

by Bhavani PrakashWhy on earth would an 80 year old New Zealander pack his bags for good to spend the rest of his life in rural India, teaching farmers how to swirl cow dung in a vortex of water?

Meet Peter Proctor, in the movie below, the man with a mission to save Indian agriculture from the throes of the so called “green” revolution.

Modern agriculture is nothing short of “war” and it has taken an enor-mous toll on the environment – toxic chemicals in the soil and food chains, soil erosion, loss of humus and soil fertility, water scarcity, de-sertification, algal blooms in rivers due to pesticide run-offs, loss of biodiversity in ecosystems and in varieties of food crops.

Mega industrial farming has no spirit, no consideration for people, environment or social justice. The result is “untruthful” food – a product of layers of artificial chemicals, and many a time, genetic modification, and only serves a ruthless globalised machinery of “free” trade.

Farmers find themselves in debt due to escalating input costs, and over 150,000 of them in India have killed themselves over the last decade, unable to cope.

As opposed to this large scale chemical intensive onslaught, Proctor offers an alternative “grass-roots” revolution, one that he believes to be “non-violent” agriculture. He shares his intimate knowl-edge and understanding of biodynamic farming, patiently and passionately with thousands of rural farmers.

The term “Biodynamic farming” is often used interchangeably with organic farming. Though simi-lar in principle in that it brings about balance, biodiversity and healing in the soils, the specific tech-niques used are quite different.

Critics often point to the methods as non-scientific and ritualistic, which is why Proctor finds easier acceptance of his techniques in rural India, as farmers have for generations venerated cows, and have worked in sync with circadian and cosmic rhythms.

eco walk the talk, may 2010URl: http://www.ecowalkthetalk.com/blog/2010/05/11/can-one-man-and-one-cow-save-our-planet-seeding-the-real-green-revolution/


The movie is truly profound and inspiring, and provides an amazingly simple solution to the complex and delete-rious world of industrial agriculture. Biodynamic farm-ing enables true food security for thousands of farmers, and in the process restores the health of the soil, people and the local community, removed from the pressures of globalised market forces.

The movie also shows a successful social enterprise, Bi-oRe India which supports the biodynamic farming com-munities of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is possible to marry high ethical values and environmentalresponsibility with commercial considerations. “Fair” trade as opposed to “free” trade is the hope for the future.

This award winning documentary, narrated by Peter Coyote of ET fame, and produced and directed by Tom and Barbara Burstyn can be purchased as a DVD on the One Man, One Cow and One Planet website to encourage their efforts to promote biodynamic farming.


Backyard Biodynamics 2010URl: http://backyardbiodynamics.com/?s=peter+proctor&x=29&y=10

Peter Proctor and how to save the worldPosted by Eileen in Featured Articles on 12 5th, 2010

Peter Proctor has worked as national field advisor for the New Zealand Bio Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association, and tutored for the Taruna College Diploma in Biodynamic Agriculture.

Aged in his seventies, Peter Proctor ener-getically set about to save the world one farmer at a time. Travelling across India, he trained farmers to train other farmers. Peter’s teachings on increasing soil fertil-ity using manure concentrate (cowpat pits) and horn manure (500) were readily taken up by the Indians who already knew the sa-cred cow is a source of fertility.

Large scale manure concentrate pits were set up across India, and the excellent results were shared with the rest of the biodynamic world to further popularise Maria Thun’s method. Thanks to Peter’s efforts, there are 10,000 biodynamic compost heaps in India (and counting).

Biodynamic compost is a sustainable substitute for chemical fertilisers, providing nutrients, building biologically active soils and also preventing carbon from cycling back into the atmosphere as CO2. The biodynamic method has restored degraded soils in India, and because it requires no external inputs has helped to release Indian farmers from their debt cycle. Peter’s work in India and the story of Indians disastrously affected by big business agriculture is documented in the award winning film One Man, One Cow, One Planet.

Now back in New Zealand, Peter is continuing his work. Peter is now producing a DVD, How to Make Perfect Compost - A Master Class with Peter Proctor. Presales can be secured at onemanon-ecow.com by donating to the project. Investors are also sought for this project.

See also Peter Proctor’s practical guide to biodynamics, Grasp the Nettle – Making Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Work.


Thomas Burstyn

Director, Producer, Camera

Barbara Sumner-Burstyn

Producer, Director, Writer

Ben Ged Low

Editor

Posted at 12.47AM - 09.04.2010

Cloud South Films Cloud South Films

This film looks at biodynamic agriculture, a Rudolph Steiner-inspired system of organic farming. The film focuses on proponent Peter Proctor, a worm-obsessed Kiwi

gardener; and his work promoting biodynamics worldwide, particularly in India, where he argues that modern industrial agriculture (eg. artificial chemicals, GM seeds)

has made soil and plants toxic, and farming unsustainable. Proctor's simple recipe to save the planet? One man and a bucket of cow dung. Narrated by E.T. actor Peter

Coyote, One Man screened worldwide at environmental film festivals.

Frank and Vicky Giannangelo

....this movie will encourage you, inspire you, and restore your faith in the

possibilities of one person's ability to change the world, one step at a time....

buy it, support them, spread the word. This is one of the most important movies

of... our time if we are to sustain life on this planet....

Home › Watch › Film › One Man, One Cow, One Planet

One Man, One Cow, One PlanetFilm, 2007 (Documentary)

SYNOPSIS

CREDITS

POST A COMMENT

COMMENTS

PRODUCED BY SOURCE

Share Embed Email Badge It Buy it

RELATED TITLES

One Man, One Cow, One Planet - Film | NZ On Screen http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/one-man-one-cow-one-plane...

1 of 2 22/12/10 2:43 PM

Thomas Burstyn

Director, Producer, Camera

Barbara Sumner-Burstyn

Producer, Director, Writer

Ben Ged Low

Editor

Posted at 12.47AM - 09.04.2010

Cloud South Films Cloud South Films

This film looks at biodynamic agriculture, a Rudolph Steiner-inspired system of organic farming. The film focuses on proponent Peter Proctor, a worm-obsessed Kiwi

gardener; and his work promoting biodynamics worldwide, particularly in India, where he argues that modern industrial agriculture (eg. artificial chemicals, GM seeds)

has made soil and plants toxic, and farming unsustainable. Proctor's simple recipe to save the planet? One man and a bucket of cow dung. Narrated by E.T. actor Peter

Coyote, One Man screened worldwide at environmental film festivals.

Frank and Vicky Giannangelo

....this movie will encourage you, inspire you, and restore your faith in the

possibilities of one person's ability to change the world, one step at a time....

buy it, support them, spread the word. This is one of the most important movies

of... our time if we are to sustain life on this planet....

Home › Watch › Film › One Man, One Cow, One Planet

One Man, One Cow, One PlanetFilm, 2007 (Documentary)

SYNOPSIS

CREDITS

POST A COMMENT

COMMENTS

PRODUCED BY SOURCE

Share Embed Email Badge It Buy it

RELATED TITLES

One Man, One Cow, One Planet - Film | NZ On Screen http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/one-man-one-cow-one-plane...

1 of 2 22/12/10 2:43 PM

SYNOPSIS

This film looks at biodynamic agriculture, a Rudolph Steiner-inspired system of organic farming. The film focuses on proponent Peter Proctor, a worm-obsessed Kiwi gardener; and his work promot-ing biodynamics worldwide, particularly in India, where he argues that modern industrial agriculture (eg. artificial chemicals, GM seeds) has made soil and plants toxic, and farming unsustainable. Proc-tor’s simple recipe to save the planet? One man and a bucket of cow dung. Narrated by E.T. actor Peter Coyote, One Man screened worldwide at environmental film festivals.

nZ on screen, 2007URl: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/one-man-one-cow-one-planet-2007


ImBD, 2007URl: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201582/

One Man, One Cow, One Planet (Video 2007)

56 min - Documentary - November 2007 (New Zealand)

Users: 9.8/10 (10 votes) 1 reviewA film about the farming revolution in India and one man out to save the world.

Director: Thomas BurstynWriter: Barbara Sumner-BurstynStars: Rajeev Baruah, Ritu Baruah and Anil Bhokare

Storyline

One man, One cow, One planet exposes globalization and the mantra of infinite growth in a finite world for what it really is: an environmental and human disaster. But across India marginal farm-ers are fighting back. By reviving biodynamics an arcane form of agriculture, they are saving their poisoned lands and exposing the bio-colonialism of multinational corporations. One man, One cow, One planet tells their story through the teachings of an elderly New Zealander many are calling the new Gandhi. Written by Barbara Sumner-Burstyn

Plot Keywords: Biodynamic | FamingTaglines: How to save the worldGenres: DocumentaryParents Guide: Add content advisory for parents »

Details

Country: New ZealandLanguage: EnglishRelease Date: November 2007 (New Zealand) Filming Locations: IndiaBox Office Budget: NZD 300,000 (estimated)Production Co: Cloud South Films MOVIEmeter: Up 11% in popularity this week.

18 cloUD SoUtH FIlmS R e V I e w S

Quotes

Peter Proctor: It’s so easy, come on people, wake up.

User Reviews One of Those films that gave me The..2 January 2009 | by Juha Oksanen (Finland) – See all my reviews

This film told me, or made me tell myself, that sometimes you have to do the thing that’s right, and no matter if it involves “just” stirring cow dung in a bucket, you are going to enjoy it more than anything.

It made me wonder if those people working at the fields realize that they are part of this bright thing that is starting to happen everywhere.. goddesses giving life to earth.. And no, I wasn’t high on any-thing other than the atmosphere of this film, when I though that. Well, watch this (again) and get more clues to these “riddles”..

Here’s a few current suggestions for more sources of inspiration on other topics, Slajov Zizek, Ste-fan Molyneux, Jacque Fresco, Rick Strassman, Neal Goldsmith, Rick Doblin, Dean Radin and Alex Grey.

-Peace, love and understanding (of biodynamics and similar stuff).

cloUD SoUtH FIlmS R e V I e w S 19

Date post:	30-Mar-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	ruth-sumner
View:	226 times
Download:	0 times

omocop media book

Documents