User:Altenergy/Nora Maccoby

Nora Maccoby is an esoteric artist, filmmaker, and environmental activist.

history:

Nora was born in Mexico City where her father, the social anthropologist/psychoanalyst/leadership guru, Michael Maccoby, (wiki) was working with Erich Fromm, developing the philosophy of social character and the ideas behind creating biophilic (life loving) society. Her mother Sandylee Weille Maccoby, the portrait painter and champion figure skater, was an actress in the Cuernevaca Theater. She has three siblings.

Raised in Washington DC, Nora began studying violin at the age of five with Sheila Johnson, the creator of Black Entertainment Television, and performed with her violin group, Young Strings in Action, in Jordan, England, NY and Washington DC until she was eighteen. Nora attended Murch Elementary and graduated from the Sidwell Friends School where she co-launched Sidwell Network News and began making short films.

After graduating with a BA in theater and government at Oberlin College (class of 89), she co-directed The Hubinspoke Theater in San Francisco, with Charles Herman Wurmfeld (wiki). Joined by another Oberlin classmate, Liz Phair (wiki), Hubinspoke merged politics, activism and theater on the streets of San Francisco. This culminated with a 3-week anti-Gulf War I in front of the Federal Building and the production of her play, “Will Lorna Loo Make It?”.

In 1994, Nora earned her MFA in Film Directing from The American Film Institute, winning the Leopard of Tomorrow for her film, "Dropping the Bomb on My Street" at the Locarno Film Festival.

A long time student of esoterica, alchemy, physics, and ancient religions, Nora co-founded IDT, Interdimensional Travel, an esoteric futurist art collective in Los Angeles - with Jennifer Johnson (TV writer/producer) (wiki). The collective produced the show “Astronaut Confession” in 1998.

During this time she played violin in several bands, including SWIMTEAM, performing regularly at SPACELAND.

She co-wrote "Bongwater", (starring Jack Black, Luke Wilson, Andy Dick, Brittany Murphy), in 1998.

In 1999, Nora moved to England where she co-wrote "Buffalo Soldiers", (Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Anna Paquin). The film was banned in the US after 9-11 for several years but became an anti-war vehicle in the UK. Finally released in 2003, it was nominated for 6 Independent Spirit Awards and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Screenplay in 2003.

As a clean energy activist and environmentalist, Nora has focused on implementing solutions to climate challenges.

From 2001-2003, Nora worked with the government of Grenada, West Indies to develop local renewable energy solutions and training in sustainability to promote civil society.

In 2004, Nora returned to Washington DC and created the bipartisan energy literacy initiative, Nature’s Partners. This resulted in curriculum for basic understanding of energy solutions available to the public. Nora was then recruited into a growing brain trust made up of largely scientists, high level military officers, and policy makers, The Energy Consensus, and began helping to craft policies and campaigns to end oil dependency in the Middle East and transition to renewables on the grounds of resiliency, national security, terrorism, and climate change.

In November 2005, she led the first international clean energy delegation to meet with the top Chinese leadership on energy projects, diplomacy and way ahead strategies to develop international clean energy partnerships and alliances. With a US-China cooperation strategy in place, Nora was able, in December 2005, to interface directly with then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Her briefing resulted in Rumsfeld throwing significant support behind the movement in the form of two Defense Science Board Reviews, the genesis for Energy Security offices in each branch of military, and the funding through the Office of Force Transformation, for The Energy Conversation (www.energyconversation.org). In late January, Nora received credit for President Bush's State of the Union line when he declared, "America has a problem. We are addicted to oil.”

From 2007 - 2010, Nora served as Senior Communications Specialist for The Energy Conversation, a DOD sponsored partnership of 29 government agencies and departments, working together to achieve smart energy policy. Her book, "The Energy Conversation:the first 3 years", published by Center for Naval Analysis (CNA) details the first years of the clean energy movement within Washington DC.

In 2007, she also co-founded The Green Salon series with the artist Mara Haseltine, working with US leadership and the international community to bring truth to power as well as transitional technology to those able to implement change and deployment. The Green Salon became an incubator for artists and scientists to collaborate on activism and mobilizing social change.