Regenerating Life
2023, 137 min, USA
How to cool the planet, feed the world, and live happily ever after.
A three-part documentary film by John Feldman
Rent for $5.99 or purchase for $15.99
Rent for $5.99 or purchase for $15.99
After viewing the film, don’t forget to post reviews on Amazon and/or IMDb!
An Earthling’s Guide to Planetary Health is an illustrated, easy-to-use study guide for Regenerating Life. Find out more here.
Regenerating Life takes an ecological approach to unpacking the social and environmental crises that confront us, shifting the prevailing climate change story, and offering new, attainable solutions.
Regenerating Life explores the idea that the climate and temperature of our planet are regulated by the system of life (the biosphere). By destroying the biosphere, we have caused the climate crisis. The destruction of the living soil through industrial agriculture, the destruction of forests, the destruction of the small water cycle — all of which result in bare, dry land — and the mining and burning of fossil fuels are all a part of the problem. Regenerating ecosystems, especially forests, fields, and wetlands, and covering the land with plants, will reduce the greenhouse effect, cool the planet, bring back fresh water, supply healthy food, and help us build our own healthy communities.
The documentary is in three parts:
- Water Cools the Planet (42 minutes)
- Life Sustains the Climate (48 minutes)
- Small Farms Feed the World (47 minutes)
If we broaden our horizons and look in terms of hundreds of years, the time it might take to regrow a sustainable forest, for example, then we begin to see the scope of the task – and at times it seems overwhelming – but we have to remember that each year, each day, will see improvements. It’s a healing process.
Regenerating Life Short videos
Under Water Music | Regenerating Life Soundtrack
Under Water
Music By Sheila Silver
Horn: Ann Ellsworth
Piano: Sheila Silver
From the Regenerating Life Soundtrack
Coral Reef Restoration by Thomas Goreau, Global Coral Reef Alliance
Cinematography by Renaud Wicky, https://oceandreams.asia
Filmmaker John Feldman and his wife, composer Sheila Silver, have been collaborating on music for his films for the past 36 years. As a classical music and opera composer Silver finds writing for John's films a special treat. Her process is to develop musical themes for the film on piano, which she and John then discuss.
For “Regenerating Life” the themes were Water and Life. While working on the music, Silver invites performer friends to improvise with her, often to picture, around these themes. For “Regenerating Life,” Silver worked with Emmanuel Vukovich, violin, and Ann Ellsworth, horn. Each of these music selections are unedited complete takes.
Learn more about Silver’s music: www.sheilasilver.com
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Regenerating Life takes an ecological approach to unpacking the social and environmental crises that confront us, shifting the prevailing climate change story, and offering new, attainable solutions.
The documentary is in three parts:
1. Water Cools the Planet
2. Life Sustains the Climate
3. Small Farms Feed the World
Learn more: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/regeneratinglife/
Watch the film: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/regeneratinglifefilm
#regeneratinglife #soundtrack #music #sheilasilver #filmscore
Landscape Time | Music from Regenerating Life
Landscape Time
Music by Sheila Silver
Violin: Emmanuel Vukovich
Piano: Sheila Silver
From the Regenerating Life Soundtrack
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Filmmaker John Feldman and his wife, composer Sheila Silver, have been collaborating on music for his films for the past 36 years. As a classical music and opera composer, Silver finds writing for John's films a special treat. Her process is to develop musical themes for the film on piano which she and John then discuss.
For Regenerating Life, the central musical themes were Water and Life. During the composing process, Sheila Silver collaborated with performer friends, improvising around these themes. She worked with Emmanuel Vukovich (violin) and Ann Ellsworth (horn), creating music selections that are presented as unedited, complete takes.
Learn more about Silver’s music: www.sheilasilver.com
---
Regenerating Life takes an ecological approach to unpacking the social and environmental crises that confront us, shifting the prevailing climate change story, and offering new, attainable solutions.
Regenerating Life explores the idea that the climate and temperature of our planet are regulated by the system of life (the biosphere). By destroying the biosphere, we have caused the climate crisis. The destruction of the living soil through industrial agriculture, the destruction of forests, the destruction of the small water cycle — all of which result in bare, dry land — and the mining and burning of fossil fuels are all a part of the problem. Regenerating ecosystems, especially forests, fields, and wetlands, and covering the land with plants, will reduce the greenhouse effect, cool the planet, bring back fresh water, supply healthy food, and help us build our own healthy communities.
The documentary is in three parts:
Water Cools the Planet
Life Sustains the Climate
Small Farms Feed the World
Watch now: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/regeneratinglifefilm
Learn more: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/regeneratinglife/
#regeneratinglife #music #soundtrack #musicvideo #filmscore
Dancing Mist | Music from Regenerating Life
Dancing Mist
Music by Sheila Silver
Violin: Emmanuel Vukovich
Piano: Sheila Silver
From the Regenerating Life Soundtrack
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Filmmaker John Feldman and his wife, composer Sheila Silver, have been collaborating on music for his films for the past 36 years. As a classical music and opera composer, Silver finds writing for John's films a special treat. Her process is to develop musical themes for the film on piano which she and John then discuss.
For Regenerating Life, the central musical themes were Water and Life. During the composing process, Sheila Silver collaborated with performer friends, improvising around these themes. She worked with Emmanuel Vukovich (violin) and Ann Ellsworth (horn), creating music selections that are presented as unedited, complete takes in these music videos.
Learn more about Silver’s music: www.sheilasilver.com
---
Regenerating Life takes an ecological approach to unpacking the social and environmental crises that confront us, shifting the prevailing climate change story, and offering new, attainable solutions.
Regenerating Life explores the idea that the climate and temperature of our planet are regulated by the system of life (the biosphere). By destroying the biosphere, we have caused the climate crisis. The destruction of the living soil through industrial agriculture, the destruction of forests, the destruction of the small water cycle — all of which result in bare, dry land — and the mining and burning of fossil fuels are all a part of the problem. Regenerating ecosystems, especially forests, fields, and wetlands, and covering the land with plants, will reduce the greenhouse effect, cool the planet, bring back fresh water, supply healthy food, and help us build our own healthy communities.
The documentary is in three parts:
Water Cools the Planet
Life Sustains the Climate
Small Farms Feed the World
Watch now: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/regeneratinglifefilm
Learn more: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/regeneratinglife/
#regeneratinglife #music #soundtrack #dancingmist #musicvideo
Americana | Music from Regenerating Life
Americana
Music by Sheila Silver
Violin: Emmanuel Vukovich
Piano: Sheila Silver
From the Regenerating Life Soundtrack
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Filmmaker John Feldman and his wife, composer Sheila Silver, have been collaborating on music for his films for the past 36 years. As a classical music and opera composer, Silver finds writing for John's films a special treat. Her process is to develop musical themes for the film on piano which she and John then discuss.
For Regenerating Life, the central musical themes were Water and Life. During the composing process, Sheila Silver collaborated with performer friends, improvising around these themes. She worked with Emmanuel Vukovich (violin) and Ann Ellsworth (horn), creating music selections that are presented as unedited, complete takes.
Learn more about Silver’s music: www.sheilasilver.com
---
Regenerating Life takes an ecological approach to unpacking the social and environmental crises that confront us, shifting the prevailing climate change story, and offering new, attainable solutions.
Regenerating Life explores the idea that the climate and temperature of our planet are regulated by the system of life (the biosphere). By destroying the biosphere, we have caused the climate crisis. The destruction of the living soil through industrial agriculture, the destruction of forests, the destruction of the small water cycle — all of which result in bare, dry land — and the mining and burning of fossil fuels are all a part of the problem. Regenerating ecosystems, especially forests, fields, and wetlands, and covering the land with plants, will reduce the greenhouse effect, cool the planet, bring back fresh water, supply healthy food, and help us build our own healthy communities.
The documentary is in three parts:
Water Cools the Planet
Life Sustains the Climate
Small Farms Feed the World
Watch now: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/regeneratinglifefilm
Learn more: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/regeneratinglife/
#regeneratinglife #music #soundtrack #americana #musicvideo
Water Music | Composed by Sheila Silver | Music from Regenerating Life
Water Music
Music By Sheila Silver
Horn: Ann Ellsworth
Piano: Sheila Silver
From the Regenerating Life Soundtrack
Filmmaker John Feldman and his wife, composer Sheila Silver, have been collaborating on music for his films for the past 36 years. As a classical music and opera composer Silver finds writing for John's films a special treat. Her process is to develop musical themes for the film on piano, which she and John then discuss.
For “Regenerating Life” the themes were Water and Life. While working on the music, Silver invites performer friends to improvise with her, often to picture, around these themes. For “Regenerating Life,” Silver worked with Emmanuel Vukovich, violin, and Ann Ellsworth, horn. Each of these music selections are unedited complete takes.
Learn more about Silver’s music: www.sheilasilver.com
---
Regenerating Life takes an ecological approach to unpacking the social and environmental crises that confront us, shifting the prevailing climate change story, and offering new, attainable solutions.
The documentary is in three parts:
1. Water Cools the Planet
2. Life Sustains the Climate
3. Small Farms Feed the World
Learn more: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/regeneratinglife/
Watch the film: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/regeneratinglifefilm
#regeneratinglife #soundtrack #music #sheilasilver #filmscore
What Drives the Greenhouse Effect?
To maintain its temperature, the living Earth has both warming and cooling process. The greenhouse effect is one of the warming processes and it is essential for life on Earth. Otherwise, we’d all be frozen. Generally, when we think about the greenhouse effect, we tend to concentrate on the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These are a group of gases that let the incoming energy, sunlight, through, but then hold in some of that energy as it re-radiates away the Earth’s surface as heat. The greenhouse gases act as a complex insulation system. But just as a blanket doesn’t “warm” the bed (after all, the bed is cold when you get into it), the greenhouse gases don’t “warm” the Earth. The greenhouse gases hold in the heat coming off the Earth just as a blanket holds in the heat coming off your body. Shifting the focus to the source of the heat is a big eye-opener, because it is the heat that causes the problem.
It’s the heat coming off bare dry land and impervious surfaces that is driving the increase in the greenhouse effect, not the increase in one or more of the greenhouse gases, although they play their part. Over the course of centuries, humans have been destroying the forests, fields, and wetlands that once covered the Earth, and left behind bare land. A satellite view of the Earth shows this quite clearly. It’s estimated that 40% of the land that was once covered in green is now bare. Bare land re-radiates far more heat (infrared energy) than land that is covered in plants, especially forests. Our cities have become “heat islands.” We all know that bare land is hotter than land covered in vegetation: think of walking with bare feet in the summer on concrete, sand, or hard packed dirt; then think about walking on grass or on a forest trail. It is this heat, the heat you feel on your bare feet, that is driving the greenhouse warming we are experiencing.
Water vapor is by far the most abundant greenhouse gas, but that doesn’t diminish the importance of the other greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and others. The greenhouse gases are not the same as each other, nor do they act in the same way. They have different absorbency spectra, different lifetimes, and so on. They work together, and it’s a fool’s errand to try and untangle the effects of one greenhouse gas from the collective.
Excerpted from “An Earthlings Guide to Planetary Health” (aka: The Regenerating Life Study Guide) coming to a website near you in early 2025.
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Interested in an effective way to cool the planet? Watch Regenerating Life: a documentary by John Feldman. Regenerating Life takes an ecological approach to unpacking the social and environmental crises that confront us, shifting the prevailing climate change story, and offering new, attainable solutions. Learn more and Watch here: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/regeneratinglife/
I love photosynthesis | Regenerating Life
Through making my documentary Regenerating Life, I was reminded it all starts with Photosynthesis.
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The climate crisis is a full blown environmental crisis that goes far beyond the burning of fossil fuels. It is caused by humanity’s ongoing destruction and rampant exploitation of the living Earth, humans included. This living Earth, the biosphere, is self-sustaining and regulates its own temperature and weather patterns. It does this by cycling water through itself and through the atmosphere and back again.This biologically-modulated flow of water is both warming and cooling, creating its own temperature controlled space.
We experience the climate crisis as an increase in severe hurricanes and storms coming off the oceans, floods, droughts, heat spells, desertification and wildfires. These are all about water, or the lack of water.
To learn more about how Life regulates the climate, watch the documentary Regenerating Life: How to cool the planet, feed the world, and live happily ever after.
The solution to the climate crisis is a major eco-restoration effort with four interconnected campaigns. The solutions are local and there’s something for everyone to do:
Plant plants. Cover the land with cover crops and build healthy soil. (Covering the land is the best way to reduce the warming caused by the greenhouse effect.) Plant wildflower, vegetable and shrub gardens, even potted plants. Eat good local food, if you can. Support local ecological farms and farmers’ markets, join a CSA. Always strive to build healthy soil that holds water – that leads to healthy people and healthy communities.
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Regenerating Life takes an ecological approach to unpacking the social and environmental crises that confront us, shifting the prevailing climate change story, and offering new, attainable solutions. Watch now: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/regeneratinglife/
Plants Sweat Too | Regenerating Life
Just as we cool ourselves by sweating, plants cool themselves through their kind of sweating, which is called transpiration.
A forest cools the planet. And in the process it brings fresh water in form the oceans.
Think about that.
I learned this while making regenerating life: how to cool the planet feed the world and live happily ever after.
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The climate crisis is a full blown environmental crisis that goes far beyond the burning of fossil fuels. It is caused by humanity’s ongoing destruction and rampant exploitation of the living Earth, humans included. This living Earth, the biosphere, is self-sustaining and regulates its own temperature and weather patterns. It does this by cycling water through itself and through the atmosphere and back again.This biologically-modulated flow of water is both warming and cooling, creating its own temperature controlled space.
We experience the climate crisis as an increase in severe hurricanes and storms coming off the oceans, floods, droughts, heat spells, desertification and wildfires. These are all about water, or the lack of water.
To learn more about how Life regulates the climate, watch the documentary Regenerating Life: How to cool the planet, feed the world, and live happily ever after: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/regeneratinglife/
Director’s Note: In the warning label automatically added to this page by YouTube (see above), the UN is far underestimating the severity of the climate crisis. Climate change is caused by far more than just the burning of fossil fuels. It is caused by the ongoing destruction and rampant exploitation of the Earth’s people and environments (the biosphere) in the quest for wealth and dominion. Why is the UN limiting our understanding of the problem?
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Regenerating Life takes an ecological approach to unpacking the social and environmental crises that confront us, shifting the prevailing climate change story, and offering new, attainable solutions.
Let Cows Fart | Regenerating Life
The other day on CNN I heard Bill Gates pontificating on one of the world’s biggest problems: cow farts.
Gates: nobody knows how to get rid of … moderator: no one knows how to get cows to stop farting.
Gates: exactly. Or burping.
Let cows burp
Why wasn’t he talking about the real problems, the cafos and the unhealthy ways industry produces low-nutrition food?
In my documentary, Regenerating Life, we look at the real problems and “How to cool the planet, feed the world, and live happily ever after”
Watch Regenerating Life here: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/regeneratinglife/
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Director’s Note: In the warning label automatically added to this page by YouTube (see above), the UN is far underestimating the severity of the climate crisis. Climate change is caused by far more than just the burning of fossil fuels. It is caused by the ongoing destruction and rampant exploitation of the Earth’s people and environments (the biosphere) in the quest for wealth and dominion. Why is the UN limiting our understanding of the problem?
The climate crisis is a full blown environmental crisis that goes far beyond the burning of fossil fuels. It is caused by humanity’s ongoing destruction and rampant exploitation of the living Earth, humans included. This living Earth, the biosphere, is self-sustaining and regulates its own temperature and weather patterns. It does this by cycling water through itself and through the atmosphere and back again. This biologically-modulated flow of water is both warming and cooling, creating its own temperature controlled space.
We experience the climate crisis as an increase in severe hurricanes and storms coming off the oceans, floods, droughts, heat spells, desertification and wildfires. These are all about water, or the lack of water.
To learn more about how Life regulates the climate, watch the documentary Regenerating Life: How to cool the planet, feed the world, and live happily ever after: https://hummingbirdfilms.com/regeneratinglife/
