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About

From small town neighborhoods to cities, the shift in the economy and continued financial struggles are having an adverse effect on communities and creating devastating isolation for its inhabitants.

 

While lying in a hospital bed after a major heart attack, Edgar Cahn, a civil rights lawyer and speech writer for Robert Kennedy, was feeling helpless - similar to the disenfranchised and unemployed. This experience gave him the idea to create a new system of money as a tool to connect people and neighbors called Time Dollars. With this new idea several individuals begin forming time banks in their neighborhoods. The word spreads fast as people are hungry for this new way of exchange that doesn't involve cash, but instead taps into the capacity of their local community. Living with this new complimentary currency, time bankers discover the power of networking with their neighbors. With using the time dollars as currency, members bring improvement to their personal lives. This spirit of improvement grows into the greater community with larger-scaled time bank projects. Time bankers become part of the larger community projects giving them ownership in the effort and empowering them to give direction in their community. City officials and policy makers start to realize the positive differences in their areas and give recognition to the contribution that time banks are making.

 

With all the popularity that time banks have achieved, the uncertainty of longevity after an economic upturn comes into question on whether or not people still need time banks when money is no longer scarce. However, time bankers have realized the connection to neighbors and the bonds with their community are more valuable than the money saved. Edgar Cahn, in his campaign for a collective force for system change, visits Los Angeles where time bank leaders from across the nation converge to learn from each other and organize a national advocacy voice.

 

This film was made using no federal dollars.  It was funded with time dollars and the abundance of the time bank community!

Review by Dr. Edgar Cahn & Dr. Christine Gray in Time Banks Magazine

Review by Dr. Edgar Cahn & Dr. Christine Gray in Time Banks Magazine

In the way that an incoming tide has an irresistible force, Time As Money is a powerful film. Moment by moment, scene by scene, it creeps up on the viewer. Past the point of no return, you realize that you have been drawn into something unexpected and different. By showing Time Bankers in action and by enlisting Time Bank members to explain what TimeBanking means to them, the film defines and redefines TimeBanking. Each time with a new perspective.

 

The film celebrates the wealth of community, illustrates how Time Banking revives the traditional barn raisin and captures some of the creative ways in which Time Banking has been used to birth Repair Cafes, team projects, and ecosystem renewel initiatives.  We get to see how individuals who do not think of themselves as leaders become founders and catalysts when they took the idea of Time Banking and put the core values into practice.

 

All the representations of Time Banking share this one thing: they describe actions and events that are ordinary and understandable; but for anyone not yet familiar with how Time Banking works, these thing hang together in unexpected and disconcerting ways.  By the end, a vision of society has materialized before us that is familiar, but also different.  It's as if all the furniture in the room have been lovingly rearranged in the service of recapturing a sense of community that collectively we yearn for, but which seems to be disappearing before our eyes like the smile of a Cheshire cat.

 

In short, this film is a kind of immersion experience-an immensely rich immersion experience-that takes time to reveal itself as that.  We see how Time Banking bridges and celebrates diversity.  We hear how Time Banking can play a special role in hard times and enable people to deal with personal setbacks.  But the film also captures an emerent quality: the joy, the exuberant enery and a culture of trust, affection and sharing that knits together a new sense of community.

 

This is a wonderful film for a Time Bank to host, especially if the audience includes some who are familiar with Time Banking and others who are not.  In a world of instant gratification, quick fixes and a drie for efficiency, this richly layered tapestry calls out for shared reflection by audience members.

 

So, a suggestion: combine it with a potluck; use it as an occasion to explore together what Time Banking means to the people in the room; consider offering hours for that reflection.  And relish the prospect of all the giving and receiving that will take place.  It will be a win-win for all.

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