It is not often that I recommend a movie.  “I AM” is a remarkable and exceptionally interesting documentary that finds director Tom Shadyac (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) conversing with prominent philosophers and spiritual leaders, including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zimm and Archbishop Tutu about what ails our world and how we can improve it.

The movie was distributed by GAIAM in 2010.  Had I known that GAIAM had distributed this remarkable movie when I was interviewed by Regina Meredith for her GAIAM TV show “Open Minds” in early December 2014, I feel certain that the taped interview would not have been shelved.  But it is all a matter of timing, isn’t it?  I think what would have made the difference of being shelved or shown is my latest book, Social Sustainability HANDBOOK for Community-Builders, (2015) recently published and available from socialsustainabilityproject(dot)com .

As we watched the movie last night, my jaw dropped down to my chest as I heard and saw the context of this movie with its many parallels to Social Sustainability HANDBOOK for Community-Builders.  The movie conveys the message that there is much wrong with our world, but that our global culture has been prepared for the next stage of social evolution.  The short side of the movie is its lack of discussion that might describe the means to empower that evolution.  When you combine the message of I AM with the message of social empowerment described in Social Sustainability HANDBOOK for Community-Builders, you will come away from watching the movie and reading this little but powerful book with thoughts of empowering your social action projects and why your projects are so timely.

Enjoy! ##