Dancing with the Cannibal Giant
“I know that this program will change my life.” So says one participant. Now shown close to 60 times, this film-and-dialogue program opens attendees up to witness the wisdom of youthful leaders. It also points to our own responsibility to engage in the collective challenges of our time from an open-hearted space, more than from our head. It invites us into stories that can inspire.
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Having completed production of the film, Dancing with the Cannibal Giant: New Stories for the Great Transition two years ago, we have been showing this to audiences of eight to 20 people (the size that we request to limit it to) in living rooms, libraries, town meeting rooms, and church basements. There is no cost… and that includes the filmmaker who guides the shared dialogue circle that is half of each 90-minute program.
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Sharing insights, wisdom, and stories with the participants who attend is the core aspect of this program… and the overall intention of this project. The film is the lead-in to the sharing that happens in small groups who engage in the premises put forward in the stories that make up the film. It is a hope-filled film… filled with the wisdom of people, mostly younger, who see the wounds of our time and are still actively engaged in healing the planet in their own inspired way. It is a regional film (the Northeastern US), as the filmmakers believe in the power of place and the distinct nature of place to evoke stories unique to that location… and meaningful to the people who are grounded in place and community. Most of all, it is a film of stories… because stories are the entry point for changing the narrative by which we live. The intention of the program is to build a more open-hearted dialogue with the attendees… hearing their stories and finding their inspiration (or sense of loss), which is a place where profound change can occur.
