Breath of Life 2015|82 min|USA Directed by by Susan Kucera Australian Premiere
Followed by expert panel discussion with Kate Auty (Vice Chancellor’s Fellow University of Melbourne), Katerina Gaita (Director Climate for Change ), Adam Bumpus (Senior Lecturer in Environment, Innovation and Development The University of Melbourne, John Wiseman (Deputy Director MSSI, University of Melbourne)
Presented by
A mirror to our collective psychological contradictions and inadequacies and a road map to transcendence and transformation.
This stunning documentary captures the mind-bending insights of the world’s greatest evolutionary scientists, everyday farmers and indigenous wisdom keepers into why we have not reacted with the energy and urgency required by the existential challenges we face. It will forever change the way you view the world and provide a roadmap to the future that you can actually use.
It will forever change the way you view the world and provide a roadmap to the future that you can actually use.
Kate is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne and a Victorian Barrister. She has recently been appointed as an ‘ambassador’ to the City of Melbourne’s Future City reporting program.
Kate attended the 2015 Paris climate talks to attend the launch the Urban Climate Change Research Network’s Summary for Leaders as she is one of the lead authors of a chapter on climate change governance.
Kate has held a diverse range of appointments: Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, Magistrate in the Western Desert and Magistrate in Victoria where together with Aboriginal people she set up the first Koori Court. She currently chairs and sits on a number of Boards concerned with sustainability, cities and collaborative technology. Kate is a member of local environmental organisations in the north east of Victoria.
Kate is also involved with the Strathbogie Voices youtube channel, which features videos from 2015 Euroa Environment Series “Watershed Year for Climate Change”.
Katerina is the Founding Director of Climate for Change, a not-for-profit whose mission is to create the social climate for effective action on climate change. She is also a member of the MSSI Advisory Board and a mother of two boys, who are the motivating force behind her work.
Climate for Change supports people who understand the gravity and urgency of climate change and to have constructive conversations with friends in order to create a critical mass of people demanding effective action on climate change from those who can deliver it.It use the “Tupperware party” model of small gatherings in peoples’ homes, each of which yields more gatherings, in order to reach new audiences of people concerned about climate change but not engaged with it in day to day life or feeling powerless to act. It then supports them to do something meaningful about climate change on a regular basis.
Katerina’s background is in community engagement and behaviour change. Prior to Climate for Change, Katerina worked for Environment Victoria and ran a sustainable living business. She has trained with leaders in behaviour change and climate communication, including Doug McKenzie Mohr and Al Gore.
Prior to pursuing her passion in sustainability and environment, Katerina studied and worked in the field of law, working as an assistant to Amicus Curiae in the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic, Professor Tim McCormack and to lawyers prosecuting former Presidents of Guatemala for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Adam’s work focuses on the business and policy pathways to a low carbon future, including how communications can assist business in combating climate change, how mobile technologies can make local development more effective, and how local sustainability innovations can become successful in the global economy.
He has consulted for media and climate change agencies since 2002, worked in advertising for three years, hosted the first Climate Change TV series for the UN climate meetings, and most recently consulted for the World Bank on how mainstream blockbuster films can improve public solutions to climate change. Adam co-founded the technology and communications for development firm, Apidae, and is currently co-producing film projects on climate change solutions.
Professor John Wiseman is Deputy Director of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne and Professorial Fellow, Melbourne School of Global and Population Health. He is also a Fellow at the Centre for Policy Development.
Professor Wiseman has worked in diverse academic and public sector settings including as Foundation Director of the McCaughey Centre, Melbourne School of Population Health; Professor of Public Policy, Victoria University; and Assistant Director, Policy Development and Research, Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet.
His current research, writing and advocacy work focuses on the social and political transformations needed to drive a rapid transition to a just and resilient post carbon society.
