Ecological Storytelling

3 PARALLEL STRANDS
This ECOLOGICAL STORYTELLING project is being developed by filmmaker Dónal Ó Céilleachair to:
– formalise over 10 years of indepenent research
– consolidate an evolving ecological focus in his filmmaking creative practice
and, just as importantly
– to support others in their own individual and collective engagements with the ecological crisis.

This ECOLOGICAL STORYTELLING project is developing through 3 parallel and interdependent strands outlined below:

1 – ECOLOGICAL STORYTELLING WORKSHOPS
Prototypes of this workshop have already been given at a number of festivals and conferences including:
WEALL (The Wellbeing Economy) – Bearing Witness to Ecological Signs of The Times Webinar, 2025
The First All Ireland Active Hope Retreat, Dublin, 2025
The Rethinking Growth Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, 2024
IMMA’s Earth Rising Festival, Dublin, 2024
WEALL’s The Art of the Wellbeing Economy Conference, 2023
WEALL’s Cultural Creatives Deep Dives, Derry & Cloughjordan Ecovillage, 2023
First Cut Film Festival

Click on the Workshops tab above for further info.

2 – COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
The ongoing development of this project is grounded in ‘real-world’ initiatives through Dónal’s ongoing involvement with three key Communities of Practice in:
– Active Hope/The Work That Reconnects
– Ecodharma with David Loy
– WEALL (The Wellbeing Economy Alliance)

In addition this research is underpinned by an ongoing Creative Practice-based Masters being undertaken with LSAD/Limerick School of Art & Design through TUS (Technological University of the Shannon).

3 – FILM PROJECTS
SEEDING THE FUTURE is the first Anú Pictures project being developed with this ECOLOGICAL STORYTELLING approach. Below you can view a 9 min. proof-of-concept preview for a feature length film currently in development.

This film is inspired by the work of WEALL Ireland’s Cultural Creatives Community of Practice; a community of over 40 artists, academics and activists working towards a wellbeing economy for all.

ECOLOGICAL STORYTELLING WORKSHOPS
Drawing from over 30 years of experience, award-winning filmmaker Dónal Ó Céilleachair is launching a new Ecological Storytelling Workshop format.

This workshop format is developed to inspire and empower people in all fields in their engagement with the challenges of our times by cultivating insight, resilience and creativity.

Drawing primarily on the experiential and reflective approach of ecophilosopher Joanna Macy’s Active Hope, these workshops offer participants’ effective storytelling and creative tools.

There are two formats currently available:
A – 60 – 90 mins / Introductory workshop.
B – 4 hour / ½ day workshop.

This workshop can be adapted to cultural, creative, educational and business settings.
No creative experience is necessary, only the willingness to show up and be fully present.

And, in the words of writer Naomi Klein describing Active Hope, the aim is to ‘guide participants on a journey through gratitude, grief, interconnection and ultimately transformation.’

For full Workshop Specs and further information get in contact.

BACKGROUND

The unfolding ecological crisis, according to professor of science Thomas Lovejoy, is ‘the greatest challenge of our species’. (1)

And for writer Naomi Klein ‘A crisis this big, this encompassing, changes everything!’ (2)

For author and Jungian analyst Andrew Fellows, this crisis has resulted from our ‘dysfunctional relationship’ with ‘both inner and outer Nature’. (3)

And for cultural historian Thomas Berry this dysfunctional relationship is exemplified in a crisis of storytelling:

We are in trouble now because … we are in between stories.
The Old Story is (no longer functioning) properly and we have (yet to fully articulate) the New Story. (4)

The Old Story narrative – embodied by Western anthropocentric thinking – is based on a philosophy of separation built on linear thinking. This Old Story narrative has come to dominate international affairs over the past two hundred years with disastrous planet-wide consequences.

And as we witness what writer and Zen teacher David Loy describes as ‘the ominous consequences of what we have been doing to the earth and to ourselves’ it is clear that the Old Story narrative has become perilously dysfunctional. (5)

For many the development of a new regenerative paradigm can only be facilitated by the emergence of a New Story/ecological worldview. This is a worldview based on ‘a philosophy of interdependence’ built on interdisciplinary systems thinking and exemplified by indigenous peoples’ worldviews the world over. (6)

This evolving New Story is embodied by new – and very ancient – movements right across the spectrum of human experience as a rallying call to a new ecological consciousness. (7)

These movements are challenging the core narratives of the Old Story by radically re-imagining – what ecophilosopher Joanna Macy describes as – our whole ‘relationship to our world, to ourselves, and to each other’. (8)

The approach adopted in this ECOLOGICAL STORYTELLING form of storytelling draws from three main frameworks including:
– The Active Hope/Work That Reconnects work of ecophilosopher Joanna Macy
– The Ecodharma (Eco-Mindfulness) work of writer and Zen teacher David Loy
– And the Old Story/New Story framework of cultural historian Thomas Berry

ECOLOGICAL STORYTELLING brings these perspectives seamlessly together in creative, experiential and reflective ways, to inspire and empower people in all fields in their engagement with the challenges of our times.

The approach adopted in this project also aligns with the 6 ACEs (Actions for Climate Empowerment) adopted in Article 6 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

Reference
1. Lovejoy, Thomas, The Greatest Challenge of Our Species. New York Times Op-Ed, April 2012
2. Klein, Naomi, A Crisis This Big Changes Everything. Resurgence Magazine, Jan 2015
3. Fellows, Andrew, Gaia, Psyche and Deep Ecology – Navigating Climate Change in the Anthropocene. Routledge; 1st edition, 2019 (p. 1)
4. Berry, Thomas, The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1988; reprint Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2015 (p. 123)
5. Loy, David, Ecodharma – Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis. Wisdom Publications, 2018 (p. 1)
6. The term ‘Philosophy of Interdependence‘ is borrowed from the title of a course run by Dr. Kevin Power in UCC.
7. A Basic Call to Consciousness, The Hau de no sau nee Address to the Western World, Geneva, Switzerland, Autumn 1977. Copyright © 1978 by Akwesasne Notes, Mohawk Nation
8. Macy, Joanna, The Great Turning. Wild Duck Review, Vol. IV, No. 1, Winter 1998 (p. 14)

View more on the work of ecophilosopher Joanna Macy on:
https://www.joannamacy.net/
https://www.activehope.info/
https://workthatreconnects.org/

View more on the work of writer and Zen teacher David Loy on:
https://www.davidloy.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWdIpNJ37nw

View more on the work of cultural historian Thomas Berry on:
https://thomasberry.org/

View the UNFCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) 6 ACE’s (Actions for Climate Empowerment) on: https://unfccc.int/topics/education-and-youth/big-picture/ACE

View more on Dónal’s involvement in ‘All Things Ecological’ & related work on:
https://www.anupictures.com/blog/