Synopsis
Never before in known history have so many people relied on so few for the basic essentials of life. In our present-day democracies, freedom is slowly being commodified. We have been giving our democratic governments more and more freedom while they have been busy restricting ours. In the name of democracy and global progress laws are drafted that will outlaw simple activities that empower man, like growing our own food. By taking our freedom for granted we could be on the verge of losing it. Are we still free when we can't grow our own food anymore or when peoples livelihood depends heavily on how we interact with the money-hungry machine democracy has become. We need to be governed less and become less dependent on a system that is simply not sustainable. An empty system that will offer no reward, when we feel it is time to start enjoying life. It is not democracy that will offer true freedom, it is reclaiming the spaces that were taken away by democracy.
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Set against the backdrop of the most celebrated democracy in the world -India- we learn how governments are pushing the democratic dream, while stealing and selling peoples land to foreign corporations on consumerists behalf. In the documentary film Freedom Ahead we visit the people who are the conscience in a world which is losing its moral principles. These people regain control over their lives by being independent and living self sufficiently. By doing so they obtain the highest valued asset of all times: real freedom. This collection of committed individuals does not constitute a movement. It is dispersed and fiercely independent. It is taking shape in universities, elementary schools, farms, communities and many other places. It is experimentally emerging as a global humanitarian movement rising from the bottom up. Freedom Ahead colorfully captures this almost instinctive response, the largest social movement in all of human history through lucid footage, inspirational stories and an evocative soundscape.
Featured
Read more about our featured speakes and their projects. You can also visit their websites.
Navdanya
Vandana Shiva
Navdanya is a network of seed keepers and organic producers spread across 16 states in India. Navdanya has helped set up 54 community seed banks across the country, trained over 500,000 farmers in seed sovereignty, food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture over the past two decades, and helped setup the largest direct marketing, fair trade organic network in the country.
Pun Pun
Jon Jandai
Pun Pun is a small organic farm, seed-saving center, and sustainable living and learning center. We strive to find more ways to live a more self-reliant lifestyle by cultivating our own food, building our own natural homes, and experimenting with low-tech appropriate technologies. We seek to bring back the tradition of seed saving amongst farmers and growers by collecting, propagating, and exchanging indigenous and rare varieties. We seek to live simply and continue to learn.
Panya Project
Christian Shearer
The Panya Project offers world class courses at one of the lowest costs. Students regularly come out of our courses fired up to make change in their world, implement sustainable systems at home and to spread the word about what is possible.
The Panya Project is hosting a number of exciting events this year, including Permacuture Design Courses, Internships, natural building courses and a sustainability tour around Thailand.
Buddha Smiles
Ramu Manivannan
Ramu is Associate Professor at the University of Madras, Chennai and founder of Buddha Smiles and Garden of Peace. Garden of Peace is an established school for children with no admission fees. They also travel to locations where children are forced to work so that even there children might enjoy education on occasion. It is at Buddha Smiles where Freedom Ahead takes a look at democracy through Ramu's eyes.
Solitude Farm
Krishna McKenzie
Krishna Mckenzie is a musician with a difference. He believes in creating music that connects with nature. And the result is Emergence, a band known for its Indo-acoustic genre of music. Living in a mud block house with wife Deepa and daughter Chandni at the Solitude Farm, life here is also about coming together as a community; over cooking and dining in the common kitchen, or diving together into the huge well for a fun dip after a sunny day’s toil in the fields.
Sadhana Forest
Aviram Rozin
Sadhana Forest started its ecological revival and sustainable living work on December 19th 2003. The vision of its founders, Yorit and Aviram Rozin, is to transform 70 acres of severely eroded, arid land on the outskirts of Auroville. In a spirit of human unity, their aim is to introduce a growing number of people to sustainable living. Our energy and resources are focused on the creation of a vibrant, indigenous Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest