#204 | The Village That Heals: Love School, Lost Nation Road, & Exploring The Edges w/ Ian MacKenzie

Intro: 12:34 | Outro: 1:29:24

In this episode, I speak with visionary documentary filmmaker Ian MacKenzie. We discuss his two most recent projects: ‘Love School’ — an ongoing film project, made in collaboration with John Wolfstone and Julia Maryanska, that explores the revolutionary research village and healing biotope Tamera in Portugal; and Ian's recently released short film ‘Lost Nation Road’ — which follows culture activist and author Stephen Jenkinson and Canadian musician Gregory Hoskins on their unlikely collaboration with the ‘Nights of Grief and Mystery’ tour.

“In the Oak-dotted countryside of Southern Portugal lies the Tamera Healing Biotope, one of Earth’s most radical social experiments in human futurism.” (http://loveschoolkickstarter.com ) In this discussion with Ian, we discuss his ongoing collaborative project ‘Love School,’ a film that delves deeply into the revolutionary work the community of Tamera, which aims to build a nonviolent culture through the integration of eros (life force) — by building communities of trust, transparency, and solidarity between genders, reawakening the power of the village in human communities, and offering a pathway toward a regenerative future for all of humanity and the living world. By addressing the underlying alienation, disfunction, and trauma inherent in the dominant culture’s conditioning of human relationships (with each other, non-human life, and the land) through over forty years of community experimentation, Tamera provides a stunning example of what is most needed in our time of converging global crises. Ian’s shares his personal experiences of how he came to this healing biotope Tamera, and what motivates his desire to spread the message of this ongoing experiment in human healing and relationship with the rest of the world.

In the latter part of this discussion, Ian ties the work with ‘Love School’ with his recently released short film ‘Lost Nation Road,’ which follows the ongoing collaboration of culture activist, writer, and orator Stephen Jenkinson and musician Gregory Hoskins, as expressed in ‘Nights of Grief and Mystery’ tour. “These are nights in which love letters to life are written and read aloud. There’s some boldness in them. They have that tone. These nights have the mark of our time upon them, and they’re timely, urgent, alert, steeped in mortal mystery. They’re quixotic. They have swagger. What would you call such a thing? We call them Nights of Grief and Mystery.” (http://bit.ly/GriefMystery)

Ian MacKenzie is an award-winning filmmaker, author, and speaker. He is best known for his short film 'Sacred Economics' with Charles Eisenstein and 'Amplify Her' about the rise of the feminine in electronic music. His current projects include 'Lost Nation Road' with Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins and 'Love School: The Film' about the revolutionary peace village Tamera in Portugal. His focus covers a range of diverse topics and subjects, though all fall under his mission of exploring the intersection of eros, emergence, and village.

Episode Notes:

- Support in the production of ‘Love School: The Film’ at the Kickstarter page: http://loveschoolkickstarter.com

- Watch ‘Lost Nation Road’: https://www.lostnationroad.com

- Read Ian’s essay ‘Love Will Be the Death of Us’: http://bit.ly/2OBwfrN

- Learn more about Ian’s work: https://www.ianmack.com

- Support Ian’s work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ianmack

- The outro features audio from ‘Charles Eisenstein - Why We Need Community To Live In the New Story’: https://youtu.be/SYgjuMtGQtc