We all deserve a place at the table when it comes to deciding the future of our planet
A series about climate restoration - and survival
Back To Our Future
An invitation to invest in the present
to ensure a world in which future generations and all life can thrive
Confidential informational overview
for the funding and production of a 7-part video series
Contact: John Bowey
Producer/Director +1 360 712 9919
Back to Our Future: Climate Restoration and Survival is an exciting new seven-part documentary series on inspiring solutions to our climate and planetary emergencies - a dawn of regeneration and restoration of our planet and climate which is both possible and already underway, but little-known.
Transmediavision USA is raising $651,000 to produce the series for global distribution on multiple streaming platforms. We invite you to donate to support the project and become an ambassador for a positive future for humanity and the planet.
All donations will be greatly appreciated - and depending on the amount and your country of residence, your donation may also be tax deductible. Please consult your tax accountant.
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The total budget for the series is $851,000. We have already raised $200,000, with Transmediavision bridge-funding an additional $175,000, which allowed us to commence production and present an extended trailer at a COP 27 press conference in Egypt.
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All donations are being managed by our fiscal sponsor 'Earth Overshoot', a US-based nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization. Earth Overshoot recently produced the movie 'Eight Billion Angels'.
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Your gift that keeps on giving
Your donation and support of the Back to Our Future video series will have a profound, tangible effect on how society responds to the urgency of the climate, planetary and social dilemmas that the world is now facing.
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In addition to getting the series completed and broadcast, your donation will continue to work, as 50% of any net profits derived from the series, after distribution commissions, costs, taxes, and recouping of production costs, will go to supporting research and development in the fields of permanent nature-based carbon removal and methane oxidation. An annual audited report will be made available to all donors.
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The mission
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Back to Our Future's mission is to show that there are viable, nature-based solutions in active development to return our climate back to pre-industrial levels. But the real challenge isn't just the science: it's the mindsets of our society. Back to Our Future addresses both, dynamically, in an accessible way.
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The status
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Series production and post-production are well underway, having completed recording in Germany, UK, France, Mexico and across North America with some of the world's top climate and ecosystem scientists, economists and entrepreneurs.
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Distribution
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The series will be distributed globally. It has the bold and urgent opportunity to make a significant difference in the public's understanding of where we really are in terms of our climate – and where we can be as a thriving society.
The outcome
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The technologies, thinking and approaches in this series have enormous, real potential to make climate restoration a familiar term – and support and inspire everyday people in their desire to engage in constructive activism and advocacy.
There is no time like the present – because the future depends on shifting the narrative to one where we succeed, even as current negotiations are failing.
For everyone who wants to know exactly where we're at - and where we need to be to create a world where all life can thrive
Content
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2 SHORT SYNOPSIS
3 DIRECTOR'S VISION​
4 THE SUMMARY
5 SYNOPSIS
6 THE PRODUCTION TEAM
7 PRODUCTION STATUS
8 SUPPORTING ARTICLE
9 THE SEVEN EPISODES
10 CONTACT INFORMATION
To predict the future, you have to create it...
1. Executive summary
The world doesn't have to be this way - heading to climate and social disaster - or end this way. We can change it. A restoration future for our climate and planet is not only possible, it's already underway. And it can herald the start of a kinder, wiser civilization.
Back to Our Future was initially conceived as a sixty-minute movie, but due to the amount of important material already collected, we decided to expand it to a 7-part global documentary series. Much of the footage has already been assembled and edited.
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John Bowey, awarded international director-producer of films, immersive media and talk shows (My Otherland, Insight Out, People of the South), is driving the creative vision and production.
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Social and climate philanthropist Peter Fiekowsky and Emmy-winning narrator, actor, director and screenwriter Peter Coyote are centrally involved, with Coyote narrating the series and calling this the most important project he’s ever voiced.
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Internationally awarded global change scientist/policy strategist Prof Phoebe Barnard is co-producing and ensuring the involvement of top global scientists and other specialists.
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Emmy-winning cinematographer Cameron Currier is lensing much of the production.
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The project is being shot in Alaska, California, Washington State, France, Germany, Mexico, Philippines, and Great Britain.
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Climate restoration - it's the biggest thing we're not talking about
2. Short synopsis
The global documentary series Back to Our Future: Climate Restoration and Survival shifts our perceptions of the future - the climate we could have, if only we choose to create it.
The 7-part series explores climate restoration: the people, their visions and stories, and four major nature-based technologies of carbon removal and methane oxidation which are making it happen. The series also explores the social and economic changes we need to move back to our future. It provides a framework for a new civilization by outlining how we can accelerate safe technologies, restore our ecosystems, and stabilize our climate and planet to protect the future.
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The series is in active production and post-production. Planned timeline for delivery: June 2023 (see timeline).
3. Director's vision
John Bowey’s vision for the series embraces an alternative, positive future for our climate and planet. Bowey is awarded internationally for his insightful, entertaining work on big social and environmental issues. His signature style uses emotionally compelling and lively content, sensitively shot and edited, to engage and transform mindsets of viewers across cultures.
The consequences of climate change make news every day, which has the effect of numbing people to the grave consequences. At the same time, the only real narratives are business as usual vs apocalypse. We shift this dangerous and disempowering binary narrative by revealing a little-known alternative future that is both viable and underway. We also engage and inspire audiences with meaningful information, projects and possibilities.
Solving the climate problem has never been just about the science - it's about our beliefs, behavior and choices. The film's message is simple - the situation is far worse than most people realize, but new developing technologies, actions and mindsets offer a path back to a climate we've had for millennia. Most importantly - millions of people can soon be involved in climate and ecosystem restoration, empowering an active, positive new civilization.
4. The summary
Recorded on 5 continents, Back to Our Future: Climate Restoration and Survival is a global documentary series on the future climate we could have, if only we choose to create it. The 7-part series explores climate and ecosystem restoration: the people, their visions and stories, and four major nature-based technologies for carbon removal and methane oxidation which are making it happen. The series also explores the social and economic changes we need to move back to our future. This is humanity’s future at stake, and it doesn’t have to be bleak. We can change it.
Governments move too slowly. What is the role of innovators? And what are the checks and balances?
5. Synopsis
Back to Our Future: Climate Restoration and Survival shows, in seven episodes, shows how nature-based climate restoration technologies combined with a major shift in mindsets and a commitment to the future can literally save humanity. Stabilizing the climate buys us the time to make transformative change in our societies and mindsets, and it's increasingly possible through four major nature-based technologies for carbon removal and methane oxidation, combined with large-scale ecosystem protection and restoration.
The project arose initially from the 2022 publication of an ambitious book, “Climate Restoration: the Only Future That Will Sustain the Human Race” by Peter Fiekowsky with Carole Douglis. Initially conceived as a 60-minute film, it goes well beyond the scope of the book to explore the fundamental psychological, social and economic obstacles to climate restoration, how to break these open, and the need to reframe our future through regeneration, rather than exploitation, of our planet and climate.
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IThe series covers four kinds of nature-based climate technologies which can, when fully funded and scaled up, restore our climate and planet. They are: seaweed permaculture, atmospheric CO2 removal, methane oxidation, ecosystem restoration and pro-forestation (strict conservation of mature forests and other carbon sinks).
Top global scientists, economists, justice advocates and indigenous wisdom elders reflect on the crossroads at which our civilization finds itself in 2023 – and the urgent action needed on a global-grand-challenge scale to reduce catastrophic risk to our future. The series delivers pathways to that action.
The series' seven episodes will energize, inspire and equip viewers to rethink our future. Humanity can restore the climate and planet: we have the skills, the resources, the technologies to dramatically reduce methane and CO2 from the atmosphere, and buy the precious time needed for a fundamental shift of mindset, economy and culture in the next few decades.
The best way to deal with climate anxiety is to get involved
Director / Producer
Filmmaker and multimedia director John Bowey works on big-picture issues challenging society today, from the history of science, innovation and technology to conflict resolution, identity, sustainability, biodiversity, climate change, consciousness, wellness, entrepreneurship and interfaith dialogue. Creative director and owner of Transmediavision USA, John grew up in the UK, Nigeria and Zambia. He has designed, directed and produced live TV talk shows, horror films, documentaries, concerts and other creative and technical productions in Hollywood, the Middle East, South and West Africa and the Pacific Northwest USA. He has worked with artists such as U2, Peter Gabriel and Tina Turner in the USA and Africa, traveled and worked with the Dalai Lama and the Tibet House team, and designed/produced Middle Eastern immersive virtual reality experiences for high-end science centers and museums.
Who's
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Well-known global change scientist, ecosystem ecologist, science communicator and policy strategist, Phoebe is affiliate full professor of conservation biology and societal futures at University of Washington, and climate research associate at the University of Cape Town. She is also founding CEO of the global coalition on human impact, Stable Planet Alliance.
Co-Producer / Science & Policy Advisor
6. Production team
John R Bowey
Prof Phoebe Barnard
Associate Producer/Camera Operator
Pat McDonnell
Pat McDonnell has logged more than 20 years shooting in the outdoors. In 2001 he created Medicinebleu Films, specializing in documenting the humble ambition of ordinary people around the world who work to make a difference in their communities.
Executive Producer
Peter Fiekowsky
Peter Fiekowsky is an MIT-educated physicist and engineer, a serial entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and a social innovator. He has worked at NASA and the Fairchild/ Schlumberger Artificial Intelligence Lab in Palo Alto; taught at MIT; and developed his own machine vision company, Automated Visual Inspection LLC (AVI). He holds 27 patents and is on the board of Clilmate Capex, a fintech company designed to help complete the global transition to 100 percent clean energy by 2040 by tripling the rate of investment in solar projects.
Cameron Currier
Director of Photography
Since 2005, Cameron has lensed music videos, shorts and feature films, most notably director Caleb Young’s “Do You See Colors When You Close Your Eyes?” His work with agencies and production companies led to a 2016 Emmy.
Peter Coyote
American actor, director, screenwriter and narrator of films, theatre, TV and audiobooks, Peter Coyote is well known for films like ET the Extra-Terrestrial, Bitter Moon, Patch Adams, Erin Brockovich, and A Walk to Remember. His Emmy-winning narration is best known in 11 of Ken Burns’ documentary series.
Narrator
Aurielle Burman
Production Manager
Experiential production management and major sporting events are just a few of the projects that Aurielle applies her production management skills to. Managing major production logistics are second nature.
Julia Dederer
Julia’s whole career has been dedicated to transforming the challenges of our time thru working with global leaders and organizations.
Her 50+ years of work has focused on personal transformation, leadership and organizational development.
For the past 8 years she has been a consultant/advisor on multiple initiatives within several organizations all of which are committed to Climate Restoration and Planetary Sustainability.
Production Consultant
Savannah Bowey
Researcher
Medieval history, sociology form the backdrop, but Savannah's research skills have been applied to numerous Transmediavision productions.
Everyone deserves a place at the table when it comes to deciding the future of our planet
7. Production status
Production started in August 2022, recording in Germany, France, Britain, Mexico and the USA. By October, we had enough material to edit an 8-minute trailer for the UNFCCC-COP 27, which we presented at an official press conference to get feedback from the scientific community.
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Due to the high volume of compelling footage and the variety of important perspectives, technologies and voices, we decided to restructure the original film plan into a seven-part series. This is now intended for delivery by late June, 2023.
Our most recent footage is from Florida in December, where we covered the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, and the people for whom climate change instability is a harsh and miserable reality.
Production schedule to delivery
Moving forward, we continue recording the series in China, Philippines, Australia, Europe and the Caribbean. We expect completion and delivery by end June, 2023.
8. Episodes
Season 1 of Back To Our Future consists of seven episodes, with the opening episode providing a rich overview of what climate restoration is, and how it can be brought into action. The following six episodes go into detail about the various types of climate restoration and the changes we need to make in society and our own choices to make it happen.