WE DID IT! 🎉🎊🥳 Our campaign has officially ended with 110% of our goal raised! When I first launched my campaign, the task seemed so daunting to me, and I honestly wasn’t sure how I was going to do it. But I was flooded with so much gratitude and love seeing so many of you showing your support for Bili Bean. This is just the beginning of our journey together, and there will be so much more to come. Follow us on Seed & Spark or Instagram, as we’ll update you monthly on our progress. Next up, we’ll begin casting and creating the concept art for Bili Bean, so keep an eye out for that!
Remember to claim your $25 and up rewards by submitting your photo and favorite plant for an E-Card. I’ve really enjoyed learning so much about your favorite plants. Keep ‘em coming!
A huge thank you to: Sarah Woo, Shawnae Ma, Janet Stark, Andrew Gannon, @sam_clegg@richira@danakinst@jojonator7@jaap.deinum , and Victoria Chen!
(I forgot that when Marlin found Nemo, he was just a little bean!)
LESS THAN 19 HOURS left in the Bili Bean campaign. Thanks to all you angels out there, we are now at 106% of our goal! We still hope you will consider making a contribution today, as any additional moldy pennies you might find in your pockets will help IMMENSELY towards post-production and distribution. /fund/bili-bean#story plz enjoy a video of my pet rats :)
And when plants take over the world (very likely), they might spare you knowing that you’ve contributed to the first short live-action film with a plant protagonist :)
Big bear hugs and thank you to Gi S Gonzales @madeline.chen@rbenefro@farahjabir@mizz_kamaluddin@tee_lange@josherwaters@zan2434@sheyninmish@jessicalee.io@normanworthingtoniv@priyakiran16@onicma@w1llpower77@lin.han.zhang for your contributions!
Please claim your rewards by sharing with me your photo and favorite plant!
*** We've surpassed our initial goal!!! Thank you SO MUCH for all of you who have contributed. We still hope you will consider making a pledge. $15,000 was the minimum we needed, and any additional amount will help us IMMENSELY with post-production and distribution, which would bump us to $20,000. I am so overwhelmed by all of your generosity and kindness! Thank you, thank you, thank you. ***
Around 85% of all plant life on Earth is in the ocean. Our focus today: algae. Land plants evolved from a group of green algae. They are the base of the food chain in the ocean and thus support the lives of all marine animals. Some US Navy ships and planes use non-polluting fuel made from algae oil. Algae and other sea plants make up more than half of the oxygen you breathe in.
/nature/18-amazing-algae-facts-to-help-you-enjoy-understand-and-respect-one-of-the-worlds-most-important-organisms/
“This is Your Mind on Plants” by Michael Pollan was a huge inspiration while I was writing Bili Bean. He takes an interesting perspective on caffeine, mescaline, and opium. He points to the fact that we’ve cultivated so many plants and function almost like bees in helping plants to prosper. So who is really in control here?
“[caffeine] was hit upon by plants during their evolution as an insecticide, and also as a chemical that discourages other plants from germinating near you…. peyote is 6,000 years, alcohol probably goes back even further — caffeine came to human attention fairly late… It doesn’t come to the West until the 17th century. That’s why it’s a really interesting case study, because we can really look at civilization before and after caffeine. And its effect on Western civilization is profound: It ushers in what amounts to a new form of consciousness, a new way of perceiving the world that was incredibly helpful to things like the scientific revolution and the capitalist revolution. Because it cleared the Western mind, which had been badly clouded by alcohol.
It’s hard to imagine an industrial revolution without caffeine. You needed something to keep people working hard, keep them focused, allow them to operate heavy machinery, and do dangerous work without, you know, being drunk.
The other thing it did, though, was open up night[time] to colonization, because, before we had caffeine, we were much more tightly yoked to the diurnal cycle. People tended to work from daybreak till sunset; the whole idea of a night shift or an overnight shift without caffeine is pretty hard to imagine. So caffeine frees us from the rhythms of nature to a remarkable extent, and allows us to push the workday deeper and deeper into the night.” - Michael Pollan
/23278169/caffeine-coffee-drug-history-michael-pollan-your-mind-on-plants
23 days left of the Bili Bean campaign! Please join our community of plant lovers and make a pledge today :) Thank you to Li Yanbo, Zach Kahn, Dan Li, @taibendit@dfzzzzzzzzzz@kskywng@renfredxh@audreyou@dyzhou@johnson_lexi for your contributions! Please send me the materials to get your e-card 🌱
Plants don’t have voices of their own, but the pitcher plant N. hemsleyana draws in Hardwicke’s woolly bats by reflecting their ecolocating calls. The bats will roost inside the pitcher plant and use it as a toilet, leaving nitrogen-rich droppings. Yum!
/smart-news/these-pitcher-plants-call-bats-get-their-poo-180956014/
#plants #shortfilm
“To protect against herbivores, the wild tobacco plant deposits trichomes, sweet treats irresistible to but also potentially fatal for leaf-eating caterpillars. Shortly after ingesting the trichomes, the insect releases a particular odor that attracts ground-foraging predators.” (PBS, “What Plants Talk About”)
/watch?v=wunMErJJl00&ab_channel=NatureonPBS #plants #shortfilm
The Bili Bean campaign is live! Bili Bean is about a plant trying to rescue their baby bean in a family therapist's office. I’d love for you to join me in my mission of bringing plants and the environment to the forefront of our stories, by making a contribution to the campaign! /fund/bili-bean — Thank you so much to all those who have already contributed. ❤️🌱#plants #shortfilm
![“This is Your Mind on Plants” by Michael Pollan was a huge inspiration while I was writing Bili Bean. He takes an interesting perspective on caffeine, mescaline, and opium. He points to the fact that we’ve cultivated so many plants and function almost like bees in helping plants to prosper. So who is really in control here?“[caffeine] was hit upon by plants during their evolution as an insecticide, and also as a chemical that discourages other plants from germinating near you…. peyote is 6,000 years, alcohol probably goes back even further — caffeine came to human attention fairly late… It doesn’t come to the West until the 17th century. That’s why it’s a really interesting case study, because we can really look at civilization before and after caffeine. And its effect on Western civilization is profound: It ushers in what amounts to a new form of consciousness, a new way of perceiving the world that was incredibly helpful to things like the scientific revolution and the capitalist revolution. Because it cleared the Western mind, which had been badly clouded by alcohol.It’s hard to imagine an industrial revolution without caffeine. You needed something to keep people working hard, keep them focused, allow them to operate heavy machinery, and do dangerous work without, you know, being drunk.The other thing it did, though, was open up night[time] to colonization, because, before we had caffeine, we were much more tightly yoked to the diurnal cycle. People tended to work from daybreak till sunset; the whole idea of a night shift or an overnight shift without caffeine is pretty hard to imagine. So caffeine frees us from the rhythms of nature to a remarkable extent, and allows us to push the workday deeper and deeper into the night.” - Michael Pollan/23278169/caffeine-coffee-drug-history-michael-pollan-your-mind-on-plants](https://sp1.picnob.com/p/pt_6849464126645510143265_0_867880fe9c75c1b49a16af0c3d80dc7b.jpg?o=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&h=8de613cf3428a6ce73bac85a1d3f0f69)
