Origins

The Pachamama Alliance

The Possible Futures Film Contest has evolved from the work of The Pachamama Alliance, an organization formed at the request of the Achuar, an indigenous people deep in the Amazon region of Ecuador. Back in 1995, the Achuar made the courageous decision to seek a partnership with people from the industrialized world who would work with them to protect their rainforest home and traditional way of life, and who would bring their message back and change the dream of the “modern” world.

During these many years, as the Alliance has addressed “changing the dream,” an idea was brewing - that the visions, the films, the media we see everyday would focus on the positive, the inspiring, the potential in the world.

FOUR YEARS. GO.

In 2009, on a trip into Achuar territory, discussions began to take place about future projects within The Pachamama Alliance that would engage the world, its communities and individuals, to make a difference in the future.

What began to unfold was an idea to bring the world’s people together and raise awareness of the importance of this time in history – a time when we can see that the direction of humanity is leading to a future no one wants. A time when we know that humankind has all the solutions it needs to turn things around. A time to encourage people to take action now.

From these conversations in the Amazon rainforest emerged FOUR YEARS. GO., a campaign to build a global movement of commitment and action, causing a positive tipping point in humanity’s future by the end of 2014 and setting us on a new path to a just, thriving and sustainable future for all.

Stories Can Change the World

Along with FOUR YEARS. GO. came the concept for a project that would bring voices together across the cultural diversity of the world’s peoples, freeing them from all imposed borders to express ideas, solutions, and innovations. This new project would be about coming together as humanity’s greatest problem solvers, as opposed to its greatest problem creators.

The Possible Futures Film Contest emerged as an invitation to each and every person on the planet to share their story about the ideas, people, projects, technologies, and ways of living that could shift our direction toward a more positive future once more of us know about them.

With the new affordability of small cameras, technological advancements of cell phones, and the expansion of YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, and Facebook, it became obvious that a film contest would be the best way to share and spread these stories around the world.

In the fall of 2010, a project manager was selected and a team was organized at the parent offices of The Pachamama Alliance in San Francisco, California. Lauren Embrey, of the Embrey Family Foundation, heard about this project and worked with the Foundation to establish sufficient funds for launching the contest in the Spring of 2011.

The Future is Up to Us

Through these short films, we at The Pachamama Alliance count on the voices of the people to be expressed and heard as a set of strong, eloquent, compassionate solutions to the many challenges facing humanity, the animal kingdom, and all ecosystems on our shared planet.

We know there is no time like the present to be the change we are looking for. Make a Film. Make a Difference. The Possible Futures Film Contest, 2011.