Maine's Newest Food Co-op is Opening in September in Portland

The Portland Food Co-op plans to open its doors this September. They currently have 1147 member-owners and need to reach 1400 to open, so are well on their way. They've had 100 new member-owners join in the past 10 days! Check out their new video: http://vimeo.com/87714644. CDI Board member and CFNE Outreach Officer Gloria LaBrecque gets the last word, talking about how the co-op is a way to strengthen the local economy.

Last two episodes of My So-Called Housing Cooperative released--heart-breaking and heart-warming

This is it!  The Season Finale of My So-Called Housing Cooperative!

I decided to release episodes 5 and 6 together, and once you watch them, you will probably understand why.  Thanks for watching and please forward to anyone you think would enjoy it.

Episode 5: No Chainsaws at Group Meetings (11 minutes) Annie's axe goes missing as she begins to uncover the true secret behind the supernatural occurrences in the building.

Episode 6: Returning the Favor (9 minutes) Crushing secrets are revealed and the new members must make their most difficult decision yet.

My So-Called Housing Cooperative is the story of young adults trying to live a life of cooperation and compassion... without losing their minds. Each month's webisode features a scripted parody based upon real life at the Faire Bande à Part Housing Cooperative (Faire-Op), a 3 story apartment building in Lewiston, ME.

You can see it on the Website, Facebook, Youtube, and on The Entertainment Experiment, a web site for Maine Made web series.

Episode 4 of My So-Called Housing Cooperative now online -- hijinks continue!

Episode 4 of My-So Called Housing Cooperative is now online. 

You can view it on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FJzF0JZG94

Episode Summary: While Joey and Shanna are packing for their big move, Craig freaks out when he feels the entire building shake. He frantically questions his housemates to get to the bottom of the inexplicable tremors, fearing that the foundational stability of the Faire-Op may be threatened.

My So-Called Housing Cooperative is the story of young adults trying to live a life of cooperation and compassion... without losing their minds. Each month's webisode features a scripted parody based upon real life at the Faire Bande à Part Housing Cooperative (Faire-Op), a 3 story apartment building in Lewiston, ME.

You can see it on the Website, Facebook, Youtube, and starting January 13th on The Entertainment Experiment, a web site for Maine Made web series.

I hope you enjoy it. More episodes to come.

This Saturday, 1/25, a screening of Shift Change documentary

Join us for the inaugural film in the Projections series, Word Up's winter series of film screenings with local filmmakers and neighborhood collaborators!

Ecomundo Cleaning & Word Up Community Bookshop / Librería Comunitaria 

present

SHIFT CHANGE

DATE: Saturday, January 25, 2014

TIME: 6 PM

LOCATION: 2113 Amsterdam Ave. @ 165th St.

WHAT: A screening of SHIFT CHANGE (69 min.), an award-winning documentary that tells the little known stories of employee owned businesses that compete successfully in today’s economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces. 

***PLUS, members of Ecomundo Cleaning—a cooperative business based in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx—will present their own experiences forming a worker coop. Worker cooperative developers will also be present to discuss the process of forming a worker coop. 

ADMISSION: $5. (Reduced to $3 if you sign up for the Word Up CSB program as a Continuing CSB Member—wordupbooks.wordpress.com/csb.)

MORE ABOUT THE FILM:

Shift Change—a documentary film by veteran award-winning filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin—tells the little known stories of employee owned businesses that compete successfully in today’s economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in  democratic workplaces.

With the long decline in US manufacturing and today’s economic crisis, millions have been thrown out of work, and many are losing their homes. The usual economic solutions are not working, so some citizens and public officials are ready to think outside  of the box, to reinvent our failing economy in order to restore long-term community stability and a more egalitarian way of life.

There is growing interest in firms that are owned and managed by their workers. Such firms tend to be more profitable and innovative, and more committed to the communities where they are based. Yet the public has little knowledge of their success, and the promise they offer for a better life.

Shift Change encourages support for employee ownership, and provides on-the-ground experience from a variety of enterprises and locations. 

*

ECOMUNDO CLEANING is a group of mostly women (and 2 men), from Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, who have formed a cooperative business in order to ensure ourselves decent wages and healthy work conditions. Ecomundo offers green cleaning services for homes, offices, and businesses in the New York Metropolitan area. 

WORD UP COMMUNITY BOOKSHOP / LIBRERíA COMUNITARIA is a multilingual, general-interest community bookshop and arts space in Washington Heights, committed to preserving and building a neighborhood in which all residents help each other to live better informed and more expressive lives, using books as an instrument of reciprocal education and exchange, empowering not only themselves, but their community. 

A program of Seven Stories Institute, Word Up is supported by the generosity of hundreds of community donors, as well as the funding for general operating support from the NoMAA Regrant Program, made possible by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation and the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation; the Medical Center Neighborhood Fund; and the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Ambulatory Care Network.

Film website: www.shiftchange.org

Ecomundo Cleaning: www.ecomundo.coop

Word Up Community Bookshop: www.wordupbooks.com

Facebook event: facebook.com/events/1394071100847825

Watch "To The Moon" trailer -- documentary on Co-Cycle

Co-Cycle was a brave and beautiful project to bike the U.S. visiting and learning about co-ops along the way. To the Moon is the documentary. CDI is proud to have helped out in small ways with both projects and congratulates these Amherst grads on a ton of good work. It's not over, though -- funds are still needed to edit and promote the film, and the Co-Cycle continues with a tour planned along the West Coast in 2014. Enjoy the trailer and see how you can participate!

My So-Called Housing Cooperative Episode 3: Rain of Mystery, now online

Happy New Year, everyone!

For your viewing pleasure, "Episode 3: Rain of Mystery" is now online! Thanks, Craig Saddlemire :)

You can view it on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV16tOAr95c

Summary: In this episode, Joey becomes concerned as he begins to sense paranormal activities at the Faire-Op. Are these experiences real? Or maybe harboring his big secret is just slowly driving him crazy... Watch episode 3 and find out.

My So-Called Housing Cooperative is the story of young adults trying to live a life of cooperation and compassion... without losing their minds. Each month's webisode features a scripted parody based upon real life at the Faire Bande à Part Housing Cooperative (Faire-Op), a 3 story apartment building in Lewiston, ME.

You can see it on the Website, Facebook, and Youtube.

More episodes to come.

My So-Called Housing Cooperative Episode 2: The Long Goodbye now online

Hi Friends,

Episode 2 of My-So Called Housing Cooperative is now online. 

You can view it on Youtube here: http://youtu.be/_tHXC6SHPN0

Episode Summary: Corbin tries to move out of the Faire-Op, but things get dramatic when Craig discovers an unapproved modification that Corbin made to his room.  Who knew one whale could cause so much fuss?

My So-Called Housing Cooperative is the story of young adults trying to live a life of cooperation and compassion... without losing their minds. Each month's webisode features a scripted parody based upon real life at the Faire Bande à Part Housing Cooperative (Faire-Op), a 3 story apartment building in Lewiston, ME.

You can see it on the Website, Facebook, and Youtube.

I hope you enjoy it. More episodes to come.

Launch of web series: My So-Called Housing Cooperative

Craig Saddlemire, film-maker and founder-member of Faire Bande A Part in Lewiston, ME, writes:

October is Co-Op Month and the perfect time to release the first episode in a short web series I'm producing called My So-Called Housing Cooperative.

Episode 1: The New Member(s) will be released Monday, October 28th on Vimeo , Youtube , and Facebook. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3NP20XgIvg

My So-Called Housing Cooperative is the story of young adults trying to live a life of cooperation and compassion... without losing their minds. Each month's webispode features a scripted parody based upon real life at the Faire Bande à Part Housing Cooperative (Faire-Op), a 3 story apartment building in Lewiston, ME. Founded in 2008 by four young idealists, the Faire-Op was Maine's first fully occupied housing cooperative. Since 2008, every month has brought about hardships, miracles, and mayhem. Rather than sell a glorified vision of cooperative living, members of the Faire-Op felt it would be more entertaining and informative to foreground the unique challenges they face. Each episode, the story is comprised of memories, premonitions, and exagerations of real events. All of the characters in the show are played by actual Faire-Op members, but the twist is that each episode, one member performs the role of everyone. My So-Called Housing Cooperative is not just a program to educate others about cooperative living. It's an opportunity for Faire-Op'ers to reflect on their home-spun experiment and consider - through roleplay - the perspective of their fellow housemates. After all, solidarity is no joke, but sometimes it can be pretty funny.

This project is an extension of the project, Household: Four Stories of Kinship and Curiosity, which you may learn about at the website http://householdmovie.org.