Tipping Point: Popcorn Required

Life Is But A Dream

Meet adventurer and author Charlie Wilkins through the lens of internationally acclaimed Thunder Bay film maker, Kelly Saxberg.  A senior citizen (self-described as "scrawny"), Charlie's tipping point goal is to row from Morocco to Barbados.  People have been telling him, "You can't do that".

Both Charlie and Kelly are excellent examples of living out their Tipping Point goals.  Both of them believe in the power of dream.

130 filmmakers from 11 countries made short non-fiction films with the assigned theme of "Dreams/Nightmares." The 12 finalists premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on May 2nd where the Jury Winners were announced, including the P.O.V. Award, the DER Award, and Best Film.

"Life is But A Dream" made it to the finals, the only Canadian entry to place.

Kelly writes in an email this past week:

Dear friends, family and fellow filmmakers!

Our International Doc Challenge film

 "Life is But a Dream" is now on the Doc Challenge website and

we have until 12 June to vote for it on-line.

The other good news is that our film has been selected for broadcast on Documentary channel USA. Please have a look at the films on-line - they are really great and an inspiration for what you can do in only 5 short days. Please vote for us!

We are the only Canadian Finalist and

won an honourable mention from the Hot Docs jury.

Watch all the winners here:

http://www.docchallenge.org/News/2010-winners-announced.html

(You can watch without logging in.  Log in to vote.)

Your Tipping Points: 

Let your natural talent shine through. 

Enter the competition - don't wait for when you're polished and ready.  You might be already!

Collaborate more. 

A large crew behind the scenes is always necessary (watch the credits of the film for our local talent).  You can't do it alone.

Team Up for Your Tipping Point Thinking

Remember our initial goal setting at the Retreat?  Your colleague moved you to a new level.  Take a few minutes for some collaborative perspective.

And a final question:  Charlie had to sign a clause that said, "I agree to immediate burial at sea."  If your tipping point - courage - takes you to the edge, would you still commit to following through?

Breakfast? At the Hoito?

Ever Had Breakfast at the Hoito?

That should be, have you ever READ “Breakfast at the Hoito”?

You might find the author of Breakfast at the Hoito, Charles Wilkins, hunkering down to a plateful of pancakes in one of Canada’s most historic restaurants in the Finnish quarter of Thunder Bay, the Hoito. The name is finnish for "care".

Wilkins is an observer of life in our City. His writing reflects the inner workings of a community with spirit, heart and its own share of misfortunes.

As we enter our first “Community Learning Day” on Thursday this week, I would like to quote the 2 final pages of Wilkin’s work, published in 1997. That’s almost a dozen years ago.

“I could discuss the city’s assets at length – good air, sweet summers, all the facilities and parks mentioned earlier on these pages – and could think of other things to say about its liabilities. However, the more I think and talk about the place, the more I am reminded that at the core of any community, there is a knot – a complex amalgam of geography and history and fate, plus any number of unresolved hopes, frustrations and biases, interwoven to the point that only the final shaman could ever begin to decipher them.

Thunder Bay’s knot is perhaps harder to untie than most right now, because we are a city in flux and seeking direction. About the only thing we are sure of, it seems, is that we are not about to find that direction where others have found it in the past, and that we must look somewhere else.

We are reminded by those in the know to remember, above all, that we are a community not of economic indicators, but of human beings…and that for the ultimate sustainability, we must look not to Toronto, Ottawa or beyond – but within.

The notion is attractive.

Others tell us our future lies in the diligent reading of precisely those economic indicators that we have been warned to avoid.

Meanwhile, the land and lake are what they ever were, lending grace and endurance and mystery – and their own, unique measure of direction – to our sense of who we are.”

What do YOU think? What are the signs of progress...which issues remain? Let's learn more about how leadership affects community...

WICK-ED!

Wicked! It’s almost Hallowe’en...and here's another version of community leadership, with a WICKED slant.

What we are learning about the nature of complex community problems, by Mark Cabaj. Go to:

http://tamarackcommunity.ca/downloads/index/MC_Wicked.pdf