Our producer, Andrew Einspruch, covered this year’s Australian International Documentary Conference for Screen Hub, and wrote up a slew of articles for it. Each is preceded by the session title, and followed by a brief description.

Riding the Freedom Streams

AIDC 2013: alternative finance and distribution for documentaries. Do you want to be an enterprise ship or an independent scrappy kayaker? Screen Hub’s Andrew Einspruch donned a lifejacket and waded into a watery metaphor of business models.

Future Rights Model

AIDC 2013: from out of the wreckage, a Future Rights Model. If you can control your film’s distribution, you can control its revenues. Distrify is a distribution platform aiming to let filmmakers do just that, reports Screen Hub’s Andrew Einspruch.

Screenrights Lab/Ancillary Rights and How to Start a Franchise

AIDC 2013: ancillary rights, the devil is in the lawyer. So your show has just become a hit, and everyone wants to help you “exploit the opportunity”. That’s where the ancillary rights come in. If you signed a crummy deal, then someone else is going to get that money, reports Screen Hub’s Andrew Einspruch.

Documentary Distribution in a Digitised World

AIDC 2013: Digital Distribution, a Complex Way to Make Money. Digital distribution is the great hope for many filmmakers – a way to get material out into the world, either as a sole strategy, or as part of a hybrid or traditional distribution model. It`s just a hell of a lot more complicated than it looks.

Who Do We Think We Are?

AIDC 2013: Ruth Harley Lauds Australian Documentary. If a documentary represents a kind of picture of the world at a particular time and place, then CEO of Screen Australia, Dr. Ruth Harley, took the opportunity in one of the first sessions at this year’s AIDC to have a look at what kind of snapshots her organisation helped create in 2012.

Screenrights Lab: Keep the Pirates at Bay

AIDC 2013: Keeping the Pirates at Bay. The piracy horse has bolted. The only question that remains is what is to be done about it. The figures are compelling, but finding a solution still seems to be an elusive goal.

Screenrights Lab / Education Rights – Ensuring Profitability and Sustainability

AIDC 2013: Making Money Under the Education Kanopy. When you think profitability, do you think education sales? Kanopy provides the “Netflix of education”, and it’s a damned site more profitable than Quickflix.

Is Your Documentary a Format?

AIDC 2013: Ye Olde Complete Guide to Formats. Formats are a strong theme at this year`s AIDC. And if you have a format, and you want to strike a deal for it, what do you need to keep in mind?

The Australian Television Content Variety Hour With Your Host: The Ghost of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

AIDC 2013: Australian stories on Australian screens. The screen sector is up in arms about the dilution of Australian content on our TV screens. The title of an AIDC session was the whimsical Welcome to the Australian Television Content Variety Hour With Your Host the Ghost of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. But the content of the session was serious business.

The Never Ending Tail

AIDC 2013: long tail, teaching old docs new tricks. Sustainability can take more than one form in the documentary business. For smaller players, the long tail of distribution is your friend. Sue Maslin gives some useful examples of how you can make money from old catalogue.

Walk Off the Land After the Harvest

AIDC 2013: Walk Off the Land After the Harvest. A discussion of ethics in documentary making is a bi-annual tradition at the Australian International Documentary Conference. Screen Hub’s Andrew Einspruch reports on the session chaired by Screen Hub Editor, David Tiley.

Captain Ahab`s Motorcycle Club

AIDC 2013: Captain Ahab`s Motorcycle Club. Making a film about the embalming and display of American President Abraham Lincoln is a little eccentric. Doubling Estonia for Chicago might come across as just plain nuts.

Yesterday, we took a huge step, and signed me (Andrew) up to go to the Cannes Film Market. A huge step for us, and we are both excited and nervous. I will be going as part of a delegation organised by ScreenACT.

The list of things that need to happen between now and then seems endless, but looking forward to tackling it all.

We’ll keep you posted on how things go in the lead-up and while he is there, but we that we’d get the discussion rolling.

- Andrew

Check out our newest video on YouTube, “Baby Goat Climbs Tree?”. Enjoy!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

If you haven’t done so yet, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. It makes all the difference in the world to us.

We were thrilled to have had our upcoming web series Wisdom from the Paddock featured in an article in the curent Canberra Chronicle, mainly about the grant we received supporting it from the ACT Screen Arts Fund. The Farmer also gets a mention. You can see the original online version here. You’ll need to scroll to page 12.

We interviewed Dolores Cannon twice for This Sacred Earth. I’ve just posted a clip (below) from the second interview we did with her, where she talks about aliens and their role in seeding life on planets (including earth). If you are interested in Dolores (and who isn’t?), please check out our Dolores Cannon Interviews, where you can see the full two interviews we did with her. And below the new clip is the first excerpt we posted, where she talks about getting to the New Earth.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

And a clip from the first interview we did with Dolores Cannon:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Andrew went back to film school for a while last year to study the business of film production. As an experienced producer, he didn’t come away with much and soon dropped out. However the big thing he brought home that was of interest to me was that some people in the Australian film industry are worried because no one is pirating Australian films. Only successful, engaging films tend to get pirated.

Right now, our storytelling has become very dark. Drama equals violence, and television and films are geared to the masses for money without thought to what it is doing to our culture. Writers and program makers write about what they know. So we see a repetition of problem solving through alcohol, drugs, and killing.

Not only that, but we continually see our future world presented as dark, desperate and dismal. Think Bladerunner, think Children of Men, I am Legend, and 2012.

I think people have forgotton how important the artist is to community. And how important it is for the artist to stretch themselves and see beyond what is – to what is possible.

Artists dance in the realm of the imagination – that right brain place that connects us to the Divine, and the Unseen. They are usually highly sensitive and empathetic souls who lives outside the conventional norm and blaze trails.

Our culture needs artists and new trails to led us out of the wilderness of destruction and the dismal future already seen, into something bright and beautiful. We need these sensitives who touch something Other, who Listen with a capital L , who allow themselves to be inspired by the Divine Muse, bringing in new wisdom and direction for the rest of humanity.

The Celtic bards of ancient days were the storytellers of the time. They would walk barefoot across the land, listening to Mother Earth commune with them. Mother Earth is the holder of much wisdom if you know how to listen. This is a forgotten art in our society. No wonder we have gotton lost in whiskey and crack. No wonder we see things fthrough a haze of polluted thinking and environment, and toxic emotions. We have lost our true connection with the natural world.

The bards of old would take nature’s wisdom and weave them into teaching stories. One Celtic scholar, Tom Cowan, shares with us a way to find our way back. You go out into nature and really look for beauty. Is it the way the sun dapples the leaves of the elm after a morning of rain. It is the way a dog’s exuberance as they careen across a green paddock. Preface these observances with “Beautiful is…” and then “Beautiful, too…” Beautiful is the spider’s web glistening with due in the dawn, and beautiful too is the light reflecting off the trickling dancing new swollen mountain stream.

These poems bring us into a love affair with nature, they take us Home.

Inspired, Visionary Artists

Julia Cameron in her book Walking in this World says:

As artists, we explore the territory of the human heart, braving the dark woods to report to our human tribe that a trail can be found, and we will survive. As artists we are scouts of consciousness, trailblazers for community and culture. The artist does not see as others see.

Our culture needs inspired, visionary artists. And for mass culture we seeing new heroes coming out of the BBC – Merlin a young man wanting to do good who befriends a dragon rather than killing him when everyone else, because they are afraid, urges him to kill.

Or Doctor Who, a Time Lord, who encourages solutions through talking – not killing.

This sounds easy – but have you tried getting a story like that past an Australian funding body?

We are artists because we are sensitives, and we can tap into other senses and other sights that many humans can’t. We have been taught that only artists can play with the imagination. We have been taught that that is for self-expression and entertainment.

It’s not that important.

But it is very important, because of what indigenous elders call Dreaming the world into being. It is often the artists who become advocates for the earth, for animals, for human rights, for spiritual endeavours – because they see and feel differently. Perhaps they break through the box of conditioning, to something more resembling truth.

Scientific materialism has brought us to the brink of disaster. Our species is sad, sick and suicidal. And let’s not forget violent and wounded.

So let’s go to the visionary artist and see what he or she has to say that might just bring a new brighter world into being. That artist might be tapping into a river of consciousness that comes directly from the Divine.

That artist might have some ideas on how we can live differently and with more harmony with Mother earth and the other species who share this planet.

We made This Sacred Earth: the 2012 Phenomenon because I tapped into something big that was coming and knew that people would be frightened. And there is a lot of fear mongering about the date of December 21, 2012. But when I look and listen with my other senses, I see a new human evolving and a new way of living that will be expressed in other stories. This new human is supportive, honouring, respectful, loving, forgiving and gifted psychically.

The world of tomorrow will be gentle, compassionate and kind. It wont be based on scientific materialism. It will be based on intuition, imagination, self expression creativity love and reverence for the natural world.

Instead of being predators, we will live in harmony.

We can have paradise if we choose to imagine it, instead of focusing on dark stories of hate and violence.

Hollywood’s 2012 focussed on fear. Our simple version simply focuses on love

You tell me which world you would like to live in.

. . . . . .

Billie Dean is an internationally recognised interspecies telepath, animal and peace advocate and award-winning creative artist.  She  is the author of Secret Animal Business, and  co-founder of Wild Pure Heart Productions which produces  inspiring and heart-warming films about animals and peace.  Billie runs a transformational on-line school Rainbow Fianna, teaching animal communication with ethics and an eclectic blend of native  and visionary wisdom to help people evolve into the human angels animals need them to be. With her husband and daughter, Billie runs A Place of Peace at her home, where over 40 rescued horses run free, and is the founder of The Billie Dean International Deep Peace Organisation, a not-for-profit organsiation to promote peace and freedom for all animals through the arts, education and compassionate action. billiedean.com  Copyright ©  Billie Dean, 2012.  You are welcome to share  this article but only in its complete form with author, author blurb, and website attached.  Thank you!

Photo credit: gatliff hostel by snappybex

 As a dog owner three times over, I admit this film had me at the title, but even setting aside my obvious bias, this is a beautifully shot and uplifting documentary. The family lives in Australia (Billie, the wife, is Australian) so the road trip encompasses various dog friendly places in the gorgeous land down under. We see the dogs transported in a horse and buggy to go camping; participate in an agility course; snuggle up at various dog friendly lodges (where they are sometimes greeted like doggy royalty) and frolic on a scenic private beach. I also enjoyed watching the Dean-Einspruch family interact together as it is clear that the family is a close and happy one. I do admit, however, that I found Billie a little out there (she is a dog psychic who claims to understand the dogs’ thoughts), but overall she is a highly likeable person. Also while the subject matter (a dog’s imminent death) is very sad, this film did not show that or dwell on that aspect. Rather the film focuses on living life to the fullest and appreciating what matters most: spending time with loved ones (both human and furry).

 

Seven Days with Seven Dogs is a genuinely feel good film for the whole family.

Thanks, Metroreader!

2012: This Sacred Earth

We are thrilled to let you know that our documentary This Sacred Earth: The 2012 Phenomenon has just been released in North America for video-on-demand viewing. They asked for a slight rebranding to “2012: This Sacred Earth” (that’s the tweaked artwork on the right).

The documentary is available for viewing on the following VOD platforms.

Note that it is available on Verizon FiOs is from May 11th.

And if you happen to see the program listed on your provider (or, better yet, if you are able to watch it), it would be cool if you could let us know in the comments.

José Argüelles

José Argüelles passed and I’m sitting at the kitchen table allowing the shock waves to tremor through me. I never met him, but when you think 2012 and Mayan Calendar,  you think José Argüelles. His work has informed my life for two and a half decades.

I first heard of José in 1986 when Fred Lerhman of the Loving Relationships Training informed a conference of 500 in Kaui, Hawaii that people would be gathering at sacred sites around the world for something called the Harmonic Convergence, inspired and spearheaded by José. Fred would be going to Glastonbury.

“That’s where we’ll be too,” I told the man sitting next to me. His name was Andrew, and we’d met just days before.

A year later, Andrew and I were on our honeymoon at the Harmonic Convergence in Glastonbury, and he had to put up with me filming practically every moment!

The Harmonic Convergence was a doorway to the higher consciousness movement. It was a heady, joyous time of promise, and indeed since that time the world has shifted and awakened enormously.

José Arguelles was a visionary and he saw a time of peace and possibility through his interpretation of the Mayan Calendar. His work sparked the powerful imaginations of so many of us to dream in a new world. He was a leader — and now he has gone and is working for us all from the other side of the veil.

I’m shocked at how deeply I am feeling his loss. He leaves a huge hole in the tapestry of life. I feel profoundly affected by his passing.  Lynn Andrews once said  it was predicted that “great trees would be falling” during this time.

Now we have lost another great tree.

Interestingly, we also lost another legend at the same time, Elizabeth Taylor. And I feel sad as she has also been a big part of the fabric of life., shining her light in another way.
But José’s passing is momentous. Something else is activated in me – a desire to work harder at helping the world reach the promised Golden Age of Peace. We all need to embrace this vision if it is going to happen. We all need to make peace with everyone in our lives, so we can truly be peace and walk peace and emanate peace and stand in the frequency of peace. If one person achieves true peace, it activtes others. Our consciousness is more powerful than most people realise. And our collective consciousness can shift if a large enough group of us (144,000 rainbow warriors) can emanate peace.

Can you?

Can you forgive?

Perhaps José’s leaving was perfect timing. Perhaps it is enough to make us more determined to keep the work going – to spread the word of peace through forgiveness, of opening our hearts, of living compassionately.

Perhaps it is enough to light a vigil candle and swear to ourselves that we will embody the principles of peace and as such make this dream happen – this prophecy which just needs dreaming into being.

Here is a video of him talking on How to Save the World.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The following letter was sent out by Red Queen/Stephanie South. Jose’s initiate and partner to alert people of his death.  Thanks to Diane of PAN Melbourne for sending it out.

Dear Planetary Kin,

I am writing to inform you that Valum Votan/Jose Arguelles departed this Planet on Solar Moon 17 (March 23), Red Spectral Moon, at 6:10 a.m (the exact same time that he was born in 1939 in the Red Spectral Moon year).

After a short illness, he slipped away in complete peace. We are asking for those who loved him to hold a synchronized vigil and/or ceremony on his behalf at noon (Pacific standard time) on Solar Moon 19, Kin 91. Send him your prayers, light and blessings to continue his spirit journey – and also visualize the rainbow bridge and the Return of Light.

Red Spectral Moon (solar seal 9, tone 11 – 9.11)

I dissolve in order to purify

Releasing flow

I seal the process of universal water

With the spectral tone of liberation

I am guided by my own power doubled.

Solar Moon 17 began vinal 13: Closing the equivocating part and entering a trance.

Note that he departed 58 days after his 72nd birthday. Kin 58—White Rhythmic Mirror—is the excarnation date on the tomb lid of Pacal Votan. Between his (Jose/Votan’s) birth kin (11) and his death kin (89) there are 78 days. 78 (6 x 13) is the sum of the tones of the clear signs on the tomb of Pacal Votan. Note: the tomb lid of Pacal Votan was closed and sealed a few moons ago in Palenque, a clear sign.

The message that he wanted me to convey to kin is that everything is now the responsibility of the people who have heard the message. There is much work to be done. He said to tell all kin: “EVERYTHING IS PERFECT!!! Love everyone. Hate no one. God bless everyone.” He will now be assisting the closing of the cycle from the other side of the veil.

“Perfect was my time of coming. Perfect was my mission. Perfect was the time of my going. Perfect is the discovery of my prophecy …” Telektonon 11.67

I extend all of my love to everyone in this most heartbreaking (but miraculous) time,

Love Red Queen/Stephanie/Kin 185

Once again, rest in peace, José Argüelles.

Photo Credit: Luke Hancock.  To receive emails from PAN Melbourne, please contact Dianne. For information about Jose Arguelles and the Dreamspell 13 Moon Natural Time Calendar see www.lawoftime.org and www.13moon.com.

I’m writing on the Autumn Equinox from a very wet little Avalon, which feels more Irish than country Australia. It is green, misty, cool and calm here but I feel around the planet, so much brewing.

I feel the world is so different now.   There is an energetic shift firmly in place. We have arrived on that part of the ladder that is just underneath the cloud door called the Fifth World , The Fifth Hoop, The Fifth Dimension — or perhaps simply Ascension.

If you are feeling worried about the chaos in the world, please  elevate your emotions and awareness..  Simply shine your light and stay positive because I have tapped into this New Era and it is amazing!   It is full of grace and beauty.  Going down the path of sorrow, pain, fear and anxiety will simply create more universal darkness. Instead it is time to light the lamp within and create the new, as the old falls down around us.

We are manifesting very quickly now and every good thought creates a good moment, every thought creates something   So think good thoughts and there is a world of beautiful miracles and synchronicity awaiting you. SHINE YOUR LIGHT!!  It’s really time to focus on the dream world of peace you want — that we all want.

There is also a physical shift – Japan has moved eight feet and the planet’s axis shifted from the massive earthquake and tsunami that rolled in with the Ninth Wave of the Mayan Calendar last week.

This shift was predicted by native people’s years ago. It is part of the 2012 Phenomenon, along with the magnetic pole shift and the decrease of the earth’s electric magnetic field. It’s all happening and converging together with the Mayan Calendar to usher in our new Golden Age.  These  plus the massive solar flares and intense astrology are working on our “God” brain and our DNA, to help us make the quantum leap in evolution the whole Universe is waiting for — for humans on this beautiful planet to finally grow up into the amazing light-filled species we truly are.  It’s exciting!

Part of my soul is in Japan, flying etherically to help the beloveds in need, especially, for me, the animals and plants.  Another part functions for clients and our Sanctuary animals and family, and the other tracks the new trails in the new world we find ourselves in.

My sense is that everything we have been talking about has now entered this reality and I feel with compassion for those with no idea of what is happening. (Please give them a copy of our film This Sacred Earth: The 2012 Phenomenon – because we made it for them, for this time, from our passion and conviction that it would be needed right now to bring hope, peace and understanding to others.)

Earth Changes

The Earth Changes have long been predicted by the indigenous peoples around the world as part of the 2012 Phenomenon, clearing the way for the new energies and helping us understand what is important in life (not, for example the latest car or plastic toy!). Perhaps there is nothing more important than life itself, and the loving support of the species we live with and share our planet with. That’s us and the animals and plants. We are all Earth’s children together.

We can expect an acceleration of time (even more), disclosure about alien life, more earth changes, and a shift in awakened consciousness – and more. So hold onto your hats and keep remembering that you signed up right now to be here at this time for a reason and that reason is to OPEN your heart and LOVE. In a nutshell, it is to ascend – to become a human angel – living on Earth in a body.

I have been thinking lately about how this current scenario in Japan is both amazing from the human spirit perspective and quite scary from the Atlantean perspective. Atlantis fell when humans meddled with nature. I think our society, with its cloning, GMO, animal testing, nuclear power, HAARP and more, has gone too far. Those of us who are intelligent sensitives have known all long that these things are just not on the side of a bright and beautiful life.

Way back in the 1980′s, when the world held its breath about nuclear war, the late Sir George Trevalyn stood up on August 18, 1987 at the Harmonic Convergence in Glastonbury, England, and said that the angels and heavenly beings would intervene if nuclear war erupted, because that would throw the entire galaxy out of alignment. We are definitely not alone in this universe!

Every action has a reaction. And sometimes that reaction takes place on one of our stars. We now need to understand we are intergalactic. The animals know this.

So please hold that thought of angels and expect a miracle around the nuclear power plants in Japan and pray that all nuclear power plants around the world are shut down forever in favour of clean renewable energy. Energy that doesn’t require mining because I have long believed that just because it is in the ground of our Mother, doesn’t mean we should immediately take it like greedy children. What if our Mother needed that coal, that gold, that oil, that uranium for herself? I bet no one bothered to ask permission? Or even thought to give back to Mother Earth to keep in right relations.

How have we travelled so far from our roots – those roots of polite communion and mutual respect with Mother Earth and all her children – the other species who share this planet with us?

I have long felt we walk a fine Atlantean disaster line and it is this sense of urgency that made me want to make This Sacred Earth and other films, not yet made. Because I could sense we were toppling toward the dark side and the fall of civilisation, and I wanted to paint pictures that were bright, of a future that could come if we put certain practices into play.

It’s not too late. There is a bright and beautiful future and I won’t waiver from that. We just need to shine – right now. Each one of us.  Stay positive and stay in love, not fear.

Our film outlines a path people can follow and the more people who follow it, the more likely we are to have that peace the indigenous people told us about.

This is the time of  “dying in fear or living in faith” . So please, stay UP. Stay in faith. Trust.  Think of the Earth Changes as a wave to surf all the way to the Golden Age of  the Fifth World.

The time of Earth Changes is truly upon us. The bad news is everywhere. But out of the ashes rises a more tempered human being – one of heart and humility. Humanity’s arrogance and disconnection from nature is the thing that has to go.

I love the grace that is coming forward from the people of Japan as they work hard to support each other through their horrific crisis.  I love the communal coming together of humanity in all the crises we’ve been having.   This is typical of the New Human. Community, love, compassion, reverence, humility – imagine a world populated with those human attributes. Wouldn’t it be different from the angry, suicidal, depressed, violent world which scientific materialism has created?

The World is a Different Place

My sense right now is that the world is a very different place, and you can no longer ignore the effect of the 2012 Phenomenon. You can no longer ignore the fact that something is going on.

I give so much thanks to the people and animals and plants of Japan. Because more than any of the recent disasters, it is their horrendous loss, that has finally pierced the heart of humanity in the way that we will never be the same again.

Never.

We are living in an intense time of change. Expect the unexpected and be prepared for anything. Always have torches and candles for example. Take time out to do your spiritual work – listen to nature, watch for omens, do regular ceremony, watch your animals and be prepared to live with less. I see people growing more of their own food, and having closer communities through this time and into the future.

It is not things that matter – its love, shelter, how good you can be to each other and other species and what good you can do.

Praise, thank, love Great Spirit in all things and all people and animals.

This is the way we move forward.

Stay positive, think good thoughts – find the things that bring you joy and listen to your animals!

Predictions and Being Safe

There are many predictions going on right now and it is not about fear.  It is about staying safe and staying in love.  And honouring your intuition,  If you feel uncomfortable – move.  Listen and act on your intuition and watch the animals for signs.  Don’t ignore yourself and understand that on one level this is helping us understand we are all one.  Because how many of you felt that last big earthquake coming in your own bodies?

Here at home, I knew something big was coming because the animals were acting out.   My normally harmonious dog pack was out of sorts.  There was a tension in the air and in my own body — that wasn’t mine.  I knew it wasn’t here at home, but I knew something was happening.  I also heard  later that dogs were having seizures, others were being aggressive.   One of my friends in America has goats who always alert her to earthquakes happening anywhere in the world —  they bleat loudly.  Before New Zealand’s earthquakes, her horses too were on alert.

Animals listen and this is a skill we need to remember.  We are all connected.  We have to learn what the different sensations in our body and the cues from the animals are.  I always say to people that animal behaviour is communication.  So don’t get mad if they act out– its time to listen!

There has long been a prediction that the San Andreas fault will go, creating a tsunami that would hit the Australian east coast, that the poles will shift, that the American West coast will be under water and so will Australia’s east coast.  There’s talk of  a coming Ice Age.  There’s talk of doom and gloom everywhere.

Personally I don’t want to put energy into any of these things and hesitate to even write it.  But if you are living on fault lines and in the Pacific Ring of Fire, now is the time to be on extra alert – and perhaps consider moving if you or your animals feel uncomfortable.  Honour that feeling.

Being a safe person is about keeping your vibration high.  Really understand that the world is actually a safe and benign place — especially for those who choose to shine their light and stay in trust, faith and love.

We are in for challenging times – but take your cue from the animals –stay alert,not afraid.  And honour them. Remember if they are acting out, don’t get mad with them – they might be trying to tell you something important. LISTEN!

Finally, just remember to keep your eye on the big picture — you wouldn’t be reading this if you hadn’t already signed up to make that quantum leap in evolution at this unique time in our planet’s history.  So shed your old story, and check out what Dolores Cannon says in our film about forgiveness.

Thank you all for being shining lights, and I hope this has shed some light on what we are currently experiencing — on one level.  When you elevate your awareness, you’ll  join others who are peacefully communing with all life, enjoying their self-expression, hanging out in the natural world, exchanging veges and fruit, creatively thinking of new ways of how we can create the best and most harmonious world  we can.  See you there!

With great  love and blessings to you all and especially to those souls who have been physically touched by the Earth Changes.  Deep gratitude , great love, many blessings.

Billie

www.billidean.com

Photo credit: Dendroica cerulea