THE OLD WAYS
The Old Ways is a 6-part docu-series about traditional communities inventing extraordinary solutions to the climate-driven challenges of the 21st century. The series is an immersive look at clever ingenuity, guided by extraordinary storytellers in remote places. Their answers stem from ancestral knowledge and traditions passed down through time, and they prove crucial to our own existence.
Each episode begins with a cold open and backstory to a modern day problem; from wildfires to clean water, healthcare to language. The thesis captures the audience through anecdotal evidence that's personal to all of us.
The antithesis challenges the status quo through a deep-dive with native innovators who have created remedies to major issues of the world. It ends with the synthesis that inspires the audience to implement change in their own backyards.
Problems are abundant, but the solutions are as old as us, because the ability to invent is within us...and our survival depends on our reinvention.
The overarching theme of The Old Ways focuses on how reconnnection to Nature is essential to our survival. The vital link to the natural world is what has kept our species alive since the dawn of man.
Society's divide has deepened through things like colonialism, globalism, consumerism and greed. In doing so, we've lost the most important parts of being human: our interconnectedness with each other and the earth around us.
Nature is what shaped Ralph Waldo Emerson & Henry David Thoreau's sage wisdom when the
railways trampled across America. Consequently, newspapers began to disseminate misinformation to the masses at the speed of trains. To quiet the noise of politics and imposters, these two looked to nature for the answers.
In the same way, the The Old Ways theme is a lesson in tempo and reconnection.