The Zeitgeist Movement

I was not aware of Z-Day, but just read this article written for Canwest by a friend of mine. And I am more than thrilled upon learning that ZEITGEIST has not been forgotten, brushed aside, or swept under the rug as just some silly conspiracy theory.

Instead, ZEITGEIST has lived on and has become quite the phenomenon. As it should. It is important that as many people as possible watch these movies.

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com

CELEBRATING Z-DAY
BY TIFFANY CRAWFORD

Film fans are mobilizing in large numbers this weekend to share their global passion for a film franchise — and it isn't Star Wars or Star Trek.

Instead, the craze has been stirred by two recent films produced called Zeitgeist, written and directed by Peter Joseph.

But unlike Trekkies, who dress up in Star Trek outfits and collect memorabilia, fans of Zeitgeist and the sequel Zeitgeist Addendum view themselves as part of a movement for social change. And those fans are gathering by the hundreds at conventions across the globe this weekend to discuss the film and its ideas.

On Sunday, according to the Zeitgeist Day organizers, there will be more than 365 events in 63 different countries, including most major urban centres in Canada. For example, nearly 1,000 people will attend the sold out main event at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York. Organizers charged $10 for tickets in order to partially cover costs, keeping in line with their not-for-profit ideals.

Zeitgeist is an op-ed documentary that explores the sources of societal woes such as war, poverty and corruption. It purports to tell the truth about Christianity, 9/11 and the banking system. It was released in 2007 on Google video for free and quickly spread through e-mails, blogs and social networking websites. The sequel was released, in the same technological fashion, in October 2008.

The first film argues three main points: that Christianity and other organized religions are myths used "to manipulate and control societies"; that the U.S. government was involved in the 9/11 attacks as a justification for war; and that the U.S. entered three major 20th century wars in order to financially benefit the international banking community.

Critics largely ignored Joseph's first film, while a few labelled it as little more than a conspiracy flick; something the Skeptic Society calls "the Da Vinci Code on Steroids," while dismissing its fans as tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists.

However, while the Zeitgeist films invariably do attract 9/11 conspiracy theorists because the first film challenges the mainstream explanation for the attacks on the World Trade Center, the film-based phenomenon has spilled beyond basements into huge venues in major cities around the world, attracting thousands of people of all stripes.

Take one of the organizers of Sunday's Vancouver event for example, a medical doctor with not a tinfoil hat in sight.

Dr. Gwyllyn Goddard, 33, believes the two films have taken the online world by force because they hit a nerve with many people who are frustrated with the current economic climate and looking for answers.

"People generally know there is something wrong right now," he said.

"When (they) watch the news, or when (they) see the different wars that are being fought and then they question why there is so much scarcity and poverty in the world when there is so much abundance."

Goddard joined the movement and organized Vancouver's Z-Day, as members call it, because he wanted to get people discussing the ideas brought forth in the films.

The second film, Zeitgeist Addendum, focuses more on Joseph's tips to fix society. Much of the film is dedicated to interviews with Jacque Fresco, an engineer, inventor and industrial design instructor who has spent his life creating something called the Venus Project. Walter Lapichier, the organizer of the Toronto event and a member of the Venus Project, describes the project as a plan for a new society based on human and environmental concerns, using technology to advance to a resource-based economy.

"All his life Jacque has talked with architects and engineers, and with all this knowledge he tried to design cities with a social view," Lapichier said. "And he's come up with a plan to live without money."

Fresco's elaborate futuristic blueprints of a world run on solar and wind power can be viewed at thevenusproject.com. Sunday's live event in New York will feature Fresco and his team.

Throughout history, grassroots social movements have sprang up from various forums.

In bars over glasses of bright green absinthe, the Romantic poets discussed ways to challenge a science-dominated society by fighting to keep unscientific concepts such as love, beauty, myths and religion from being marginalized. In the 50s, members of the Beat Generation, as they would later be called, gathered on the dusty top floor of City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco where they hatched plans to challenge politics and culture by defying conventional writing.

But today's forum for social dissidents is vaster and faster. They have the Internet and it's a technological dream for activists who want to connect with other like-minded individuals.

"It's massive. I think globally there's awareness, just with computers and informatics and communication capabilities that we didn't have even five years ago in some places," said Goddard.

What is unusual about this particular Internet phenomenon is how much the viewers claim to have been "awakened" and how they profess their lives to have been altered.

"I think Zeitgeist goes hand in hand with a growing worldwide consciousness for change, waking up to the problems we face and realizing that so many people are in pain because of not only the recession, but poverty all over the world," said Andrew Miller, of Barrie, Ont.

The 30-year-old organic farmer organized one of Sunday's events in Barrie, a city located about 100 kilometres northwest of Toronto. The venue is a homeless shelter where he also volunteers regularly.

"By doing this as a giving event we've just had a lot of generous folks who donated the space and donated food and then hopefully we'll raise money for the homeless too."

Both of the two-hour length films are posted for free at www.zeitgeistmovie.com.

Sunday's New York event will be streamlined live at 7 p.m. EST at 

www.thezeitgeistmovement.com

Ldm.