John DeGraaf has a long film-making career that envelopes community engagement as a powerful tool to catalyze societal change for good.
Plan to come meet John at the Wenatchee Public Library on Tuesday April 16, 2019 for a 6pm screening of his newest film, Redefining Prosperity. After viewing, he’ll highlight his initiative, And Beauty For All. Read his recent op-ed, The Promise of Beauty, recently published in the Wenatchee World.
Here is how John describes his film, Redefining Prosperity – The Gold Rushes of Nevada City
As world population and the challenges of inequality, climate change and the limits of earth’s resources and biosphere become increasingly apparent, towns and cities everywhere will be called upon to change, transitioning from older resource-extractive and fossil-fuel-based high-consumption economies to more sustainable economic paradigms. It will not be easy and they will need models and inspiration.
Redefining Prosperity is a one-hour documentary about Nevada City, California, a community that has faced the challenges and found a consistent, if still rocky, path forward based in different values and a different measure of progress. Once a place whose essence was individualism, competition and extractive industries, it is now moving toward a future of solidarity, stewardship, and livelihoods based on renewable resources, husbandry and sustainability.
It is the remarkable story of a beautiful California town and the outward-looking, creative people who call it home and forged its new identity. It’s a story of engaged citizens, moving from a world that is dying to one yearning to be born. It is not a ‘Pollyanna’ story, free of conflict, setbacks and new challenges, but a nuanced tale of persuasion, resilience and levels of local initiative obvious even to the most cursory of visitors. It is hopeful and inspirational, and a story that can be replicated in other communities.
John’s newest initiative, And Beauty for All, has this Mission:
We believe all Americans appreciate beauty, regardless of their political views, origin, economic status or creed, and that working to restore beautiful landscapes and create beautiful places is a non-partisan cause that can bring us together and build community in polarizing times.
In a rapidly-growing and more stressful America, we also need more space for healthy recreation and leisure.
- We worry that in the quest for wealth and growth we may overlook the human need for beauty. We seek to preserve the beauty that still exists and restore that which has been lost. We believe America’s beauty must be won and protected by every generation.
- We commit ourselves to passing on a more beautiful America to our children and theirs and we seek a renewed stirring of love for our land.
- It’s not a new idea. Our campaign is modeled on a campaign that brought us together during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s (see Beauty’s History). Fifty years ago, Americans were engaged in a comprehensive program of national beautification that united much of Congress across partisan lines. Without it, the air in Los Angeles might be deadly today, the Cuyahoga River still flammable, our highways buried in litter and billboards, and large swaths of our landscape beyond repair.
- We changed things then. We can do it again.
- We call for input and feedback from all who share our basic goals.