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Redefining Prosperity

Sustainable Communities • 57m

Directed by John de Graaf • Documentary • 2018 • 57 minutes

Born in the California Gold Rush, Nevada City was once the scene of some of the most destructive environmental practices on earth. By the 1960s, the town was a backwater, its extractive industries dying. Then it was discovered by the "back to the land movement." It was a second gold rush but with a different idea of gold based on nature, community and a sense of place.

The Yuba River brought conflicting factions of the community together while different ideas about the meaning of wealth have led to changes in local food production, education, arts, music and a commitment to building community. Once a place whose essence was individualism, competition and extractive industries, Nevada City is now moving toward a future of solidarity, stewardship, and livelihoods based on renewable resources, husbandry and sustainability.

Tags
agriculture and food, american (u.s.) studies, american studies, americas, area studies, arts, back to the land movement, building community, building sustainable economies, bullfrog films, business, california, citizen engagement, citizenship, community, counterculture, doc, education, environment, environmental justice, expository, extractive industries, fight to save yuba river, film festival, geography, gold rush, green gold rush, historic district, history, human geography, husbandry, impacts of mining, labor and economics, local economies, local food production, maidu, migration, mining sector, mining town, music, native americans, nevada city, new identity, nisenan, north american studies, organic and sustainable agriculture, ovid, ovid_ca, polarized community, politics and political science, pollution, proposed power dams, redefining prosperity, renewable resources, revitalization of small towns, revitalization of urban neighborhoods, rural studies, s_0041, s_0050, s_0180, s_0198, s_0210, s_0231, s_0232, s_0250, s_0279, s_0280, s_0306, s_0440, s_0462, s_0642, s_0667, sectors, sense of place, social issues, social movements and activism, social studies, solidarity, stewardship, sustainability, the, the american west, title_nopqrs, title_r, u.s. history, united states, urban studies, western architecture, world regions

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