2006-09-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

Petaluma Build It Green Week

October 2-7

FREE - Locations throughout Petaluma

Green building is coming to Petaluma! To celebrate, Petaluma Build It Green is offering consumers a week of green building-related activities October 2-7. These include public presentations, a Green Building Movie Night, and a half day of workshops, demonstrations, exhibits, and related kids activities. All of these events, held in various Petaluma locations, reflect the City’s commitment to responsible development and environmental stewardship, and celebrate the official launch of the City's Petaluma Build It Green program.

Activities:

City of Petaluma’s Declaration of Build It Green Week Oct. 2. 7 pm. Petaluma City Hall, 11 English St.

“Ten Steps to Green Remodeling” Oct. 3, 7-8:30 pm. Petaluma Library, 00 Fairground Drive. Presenter: Bruce Hammond, Co-founder and former Chair of Redwood Chapter of United States Green Building Council and President, Hammond Fine Homes, Inc.

“Greening Public Buildings” Oct. 5, 7-8:30 pm. Kenilworth Junior High School, 800 Riesling Road. Presenter: George Beeler, principal architect of AIM Associates and one of the county’s foremost green building designers.

Green Building Movie Night Oct. 6, 7 pm. Petaluma Masonic Center, 9 Western Ave. (corner Petaluma Bl. So. Donation requested.

Green Building Expo and Workshops Oct. 7, 9am-1pm, Lucchesi Community Center, 320 North McDowell. Highlights:

· “Introduction to Green Building” Presenters: Marc Richmond & Grayson James. Richmond has been a green building consultant to builders, developers and government agencies for over 15 year. James, a principal with the consulting firm Resource Performance Partners, worked with the City's Community Development Department to create the Petaluma Build It Green program and serves on the Executive Committee of the Santa Rosa Build It Green program.

· “Natural Remodeling” presentation and book-signing. Presenter: Carol Venolia, Santa Rosa architect and educator with 30+ years of ecological building experience. An author of two books, Venolia has written Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House (with Kelly Lerner), directs the EcoDwelling program at New College of California and writes the “Design for Life” column for Natural Home Magazine.

· “Going Green To Lower Your Water Bill”. Presenters: David Iribarne and Ned Orrett, P.E. Iribarne is Water Conservation Coordinator for the City of Petaluma; Orrett is a principal of Resource Performance Partners.

· Vendor Exhibits. Local green building resources.

· Kids activities. Hands-on green building crafts and artwork for children ages 5-12. Space is limited, please RSVP.

Admission to all events is free. A donation for the green building movie night is requested. Reservations are advised as seating is limited. For more information, call the Community Development Department at 707-778-4301 or www.petalumabuilditgreen.org.

Milarepa - debut screening of independent film

2006-09-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

Milarepa 6:30 pm, Sept. 30
Wheeler Hall Auditorium, UC Berkeley campus, $15+
benefit screening of full feature independent Tibetan film
for Conservancy of Tibetan Art and Culture and Orphan Project

Tibetan Lama on the Cutting Edge of Indie Film Distribution
One Tibetan lama/film director/actor + 100 monks + a small film crew
Shangri-la Its Not: 40 Orphans to Care for and a Feature Film to Market

BIR, INDIA--Neten Chokling, a soft-spoken 33 year-old Tibetan lama from Bhutan, defied both skeptics and the odds by successfully completing a full-length feature film about the life of Milarepa, an 11th century yogi and sorcerer who became Tibets greatest saint and folk hero.

Making the film was an exercise in controlled chaos, or perhaps insanity, from day one when Chokling and a band of nearly 100 monks, plus a tiny Western film crew, set off for the remote Spiti Valley high in the Himalayas. Filming on a shoestring budget through some of the harshest conditions imaginable, they managed to escape just as the winter snows arrived, sealing the valley off from the rest of the world.

Following an enthusiastic reception at its world premiere at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, Chokling has launched a self-distribution campaign, complete with an e-commerce site promoting the DVD and soundtrack, and benefit screenings hosted by Sharon Stone.

Neten Chokling is also the spiritual head of an important Tibetan Buddhist lineage, with a monastery of 150 monks in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. This year, he has taken in 39 young orphan boys and one sick 5 year-old girl. It is a struggle to provide food, shelter, healthcare and education for these hungry and destitute children.

Neten Chokling studied film with Bhutans other film director, Khyentse Norbu (director of The Cup and Travelers & Magicians), and was a principal actor in The Cup and second unit director and occasional stuntman in Travelers. For his directorial debut, Chokling picked Milarepas story, which he calls a Buddhist version of the traditional rags to riches fable. In this story, however, the road from rags to riches involves the journey from seeking vengeance to seeking liberation and enlightenment.

Neten Chokling is unfazed by the odds against Milarepa becoming a big commercial success. He believes his decision to self-distribute the film to its core audience of Western and Asian Buddhists, and its potential crossover audience for exotic films with a spiritual message, and gorgeous Himalayan scenery will over the cost of the film: a portion of the proceeds will be used to provide the necessities for his monks and orphans.

Choklings production company, Shining Moon Productions, will begin rolling out the film this September in a series of benefit screenings and limited commercial engagements. By mid-November, they will release the DVD, a soundtrack CD and companion DVD set of teachings by the Dalai Lama about Milarepa, all sold exclusively through his e-commerce site, www.milarepamovie.com.

For more information: 877-697-2998 or visit www.milarepamovie.com

Karen Pierce Gonzalez Public Relations

Milarepa - debut screening of independent film