BLAINESWORLD
Positive news and information about people and organizations in both Western NC and throughout the country.
BLAINESWORLD
6.17.2026 - Vic Compher--filmmaker, poet, clinical social worker, workshop trainer, and author
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He discusses “The Eagle and the Condor Unite–A Story of Climate Restoration," his most recent film. For more information, click: https://www.lifedreamfilms.com/about-us/
Good morning. This is the Blaine's World Show or podcast where conversations are worth hearing and seeing. You can watch us each week on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. You can also listen in on Spotify and our podcast. For more information and past episodes, visit the website which is behind me, Blainesworld.net. I'm your host, Blaine Greenfield, coming to you from my Zoom studio here in lovely downtown Fairview, North Carolina. Each week we share positive news and uplifting stories about people and organizations in both Western North Carolina and third country. And toward that end, it's my pleasure to introduce Vic Tomfer. And Vic is kind of an interesting guy, which we'll hear about in just a second, who's a um uh filmmaker, he's a uh client climate activist, he's just about uh you name it, I think he's done it. And Vic, let me ask you this question to start off.
SPEAKER_00In terms as a kid, you grew up where actually I grew up in East Tennessee, probably not too far from where you are, and um in a little town called Kingsford, part of the Tri-Cities. Spent um a lot of my childhood and youth there, uh some years in Richmond, Virginia as well. But I moved to Philadelphia um a number of years ago and I spent most of my adult life here.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah, and that's where you're at now, at Philadelphia.
SPEAKER_00That's right. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Because I spent my adult life in uh Bucks County, not too far from uh Philadelphia. And so when you were growing up as a kid then, um what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you as a kid, did you have did you want to be a documentary um filmmaker? Or what did you want to be?
SPEAKER_00You know, I think uh I had very little idea what I wanted to do. Um as I thought back on my childhood, I recall that my uh father was very, very interested in uh family uh movies, as as many people were in that era. And I was fascinated, and uh I realized much later um uh uh in my life uh that that I was very intrigued by filmmaking, even though I don't do the technical part of the film process. Rodney Wittenberg, uh my co-producer and colleague of many years, uh, does that, but I've been intrigued uh with films and um I'm a very visual person. Uh I'm very um attuned and appreciative of nature. Uh East Tennessee and North Carolina are very similar. Um I used to be able to see the uh Blue Ridge Parkway from where I would play as a kid, and I've had this good feeling about nature much of my life. So, what was the first film then you uh did? Do you remember the first one? Well, I got into filmmaking uh after a long career in uh clinical social work, and as I was moving toward a transition into retirement, I picked up um filmmaking. And you know, some of the mentors for me were older adults who uh when they began to have free time, they began to move into their more creative uh desires, plans, interests, things that maybe they had suppressed. And so, in a way, um my first, well, my first films were definitely about older adults, the first three I produced. And these people were mentors for me. Uh and in the process of attending a kind of supportive group for artists called Artist Conference Network, um, my uh interest in development in both writing poetry and in uh making films developed over a period of time. So um my entry into filmmaking uh came much later in my life, and my uh close association with Rodney Wittenberg, uh, who spent his entire life doing this, uh, he and I have uh collaborated now on uh three additional films beyond the the first three that I made regarding older adults and sometimes older, younger generational connection. But the uh the work we've done together, uh we produced um three films, broadcast quality, uh, that um go back to about uh 2015. We released a film called Portraits of Professional Caregivers, which also aired on PBS across the country. And that has to do with secondary trauma, that is the phenomenon that is common among people who provide um support in their work for traumatized people. It's the backstory, whether that be firefighters, uh, could be doctors, nurses, uh, could be certain types of social work. Uh many, many different helpers, professional helpers, experience secondary trauma. And there are solutions to it. There is a way to resolve that. And so that's what the first film that Rodney and I worked on together did, that came out, as I said, in 2015. After that, we produced a film about sexuality and spirituality, and we really got into the uh issues of religious trauma that uh have been developed largely by religious institutions, the church being part of that. Uh, it's certainly not anti-religion or anti-Christian, but it acknowledges the split between uh sexuality and spirituality, that is, the flesh is evil and the spirit is good, is a false dichotomy. And we interview people, many of whom are still very spiritual, uh, Christian or Jewish or what have you, or no religion, but who have experienced this issue, this split, and have been harmed by it, and then were able to talk about the healing process and how they become more whole and united. Uh, this this third film that we just released this spring also has to do with healing. It has to do with the healing of the planet, healing of the atmosphere of the earth that has been so attacked and so degraded. And this film is called uh The Eagle on the Condor, a story of climate restoration.
SPEAKER_01Well, let me jump in here just a second, too, because in other words, when I saw the title before I saw the documentary, um, it's just a cool title. What gave you the idea for the title? Or what's the idea behind the title?
SPEAKER_00Good question. So it uh is based uh at some level on a the metaphor of the eagle in the condor, uh which is an ancient legend of Andean indigenous people. And in that legend, uh 500 years ago, the eagle uh which represented the ways of uh analysis, of science, of thinking about the world, what today we would call um left brain thinking, uh, that that split off from the condor, which is the metaphor or symbol of the part of the our being and our thinking, which is more symbolic, is more you could say spiritually connected to the environment. And that split, in fact, you you might think of the condor as the right brain, the symbolic metaphorical part of our perception of the world. And the and the the legend is that these split off, and that you had had this divergent of the indigenous worldview and the western industrialized worldview, and that this is now the time when these two things are reconverging, are coming back together and uniting. And as one person on our team called it, it's when spirit meets science and the integrity of science, the integrity of our feelings of care and affection and love for the earth, these things can be very complementary and can come together.
SPEAKER_01Now, about the film, what really impressed me too is um the the number of people not only you interviewed, but how you found them. I want to just talk a little bit about that. In terms of in developing this film, was the title the first thing you came up with? The title came up afterward? Where'd the title come in?
SPEAKER_00Well, it did come up afterwards. Um we uh we interviewed uh the scientists first, actually, and we were very fascinated with uh these particular scientists who really care about the earth and who use uh biomimicry. Biomimicry is observing and listening to how nature heals itself, which we can talk about a little bit more. And it was actually through some people associated with that climate restoration movement that we learned about uh an indigenous spokesperson who was in the film and whom we interviewed from Mexico. Um, and and he spoke so eloquently and shared the story of the eagle in the condor, and um we were very taken by that. And so we really brought together uh this deep knowledge and wisdom of the indigenous world with the modern sciences that collaborate with the earth basically, and understanding how the earth heals itself, how it for millennia has drawn down massive amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere and created oxygen, the cycle of photosynthesis, uh, not only among plants and trees and forests, but also the greater part of photosynthesis occurring in the ocean itself through phytoplankton. So listening to nature uh is something indigenous people have historically done. Modern science also is learning, has been learning for some time uh when it when it chooses to to learn from from nature.
SPEAKER_01Now, in putting this together, did you then script out first? You wrote the script and then found the speakers, or I was just so impressed how it all kind of came together, and you brought in so many diverse speakers talking about diverse topics. How'd that come about? Did you just come up with this on your own or you wrote it first?
SPEAKER_00So, how did I get into the subject? Well, yeah. Uh well, essentially, I would say it started about five or six years ago, and I heard a podcast sort of like this, which woke me up. Um, I had felt pretty depressed and uh like the future was pretty hope hopeless. Uh and I heard an interview of um a lead in this uh a lead uh engineer and scientist in this field whose name is Peter Fikkowski. And uh this is his book right here. Okay, great. Climate restoration. And I got to know him and the co-writer, who is Carol Douglas. And um so I just pursued this, and um I also was working on an environmental project which resonates with what they're talking about. Uh and uh you know we can say more about that as well, but it it has to do with the production of concrete, which sounds like a pretty weird thing to get interested in, but concrete produces 8% of the pollution of the planet every year. It's an enormous polluter, steel also in that general category. And there are now ways of producing concrete which uh can be actually uh carbon zero, that is, it can be produced without creating any uh essential carbon or carbon dioxide. So uh I was I was already getting interested in the environment, and then I heard this podcast, it sort of woke me up from feeling uh depressed and like everything was dire and doom ahead, to hey, there's possibilities here. There's there's reason to be hopeful, and that's where I have been putting my energy uh to a large degree in the last five or six years.
SPEAKER_01And what I found fascinating about the film is as you said, but the concrete, I didn't even thought of that. You know, who would have thought you don't even think about concrete, and then you just kind of open my eyes to it. You know, what an eye-opening thing to see this. And um, I hadn't realized it was such a problem, you know. Um, but what was again, I think great about the film is it kind of left me with a feeling several interviews did too, that there is hope for us. You know, it doesn't all have to be, you know, do uh doom and gloom, but there's a future for us in this process, you know.
SPEAKER_00Um there really is. Yeah. And the message we've gotten for uh some 30 plus years, uh, it's not that it's I would not say it's not important. The the goal has been uh and the the strong messaging has been toward um the um net zero as a goal, that is to say that we we uh uh produce we stop producing CO2 through fossil fuels. And uh there's actually been tremendous progress in uh the industrial world through solar energy, for example, which uh is now doubling. The capacity for um solar energy and electricity doubles every three years around the planet, not so much in the US right now under the current administration, but it's still it's still developing here, but worldwide it's had phenomenal growth. Uh wind energy has also been developing uh phenomenally around the planet, and these are all good things, and they all uh are uh targeted toward net zero as a goal. So we very much support and believe that's absolutely essential because the trajectory of using fossil fuels and the trajectory of pollution in the in the planet is uh destructive. It's very destructive ultimately to the human race. But it doesn't have to be that way. The story's bigger than that, and um, the elephant in the room has been the uh existence of a trillion tons of carbon dioxide that's just floating in the atmosphere, and that is actually the source of the hurricanes, of the forest fires, uh of the acidification and destruction of the ocean. So, in a way, we've been ignoring that and focusing on well, let's don't let's don't do any more harm. But that goal was established over 40 years ago, and if we had actually been achieving it back then, it would have been a sufficient goal. But now we we must, we really uh it's important for us to know how to draw down that uh enormous blanket of CO2 that is is the real source of our problem right now. And that's the elephant in the room that it hasn't been talked about enough. But it's beginning to be, and people are beginning to be aware that uh that that problem must be addressed. And one of the encouraging things about the future, uh, and this is illustrated, I believe, uh pretty uh in a pretty particular and evident way in the film, is the the newer generation of scientists and engineers. There are so many of them now that are addressing this very issue. Uh, with the um development of industries like we were talking about with concrete. Uh there are uh people moving into the area of steel and the production of steel in a parallel manner. Uh there are people who are uh beginning to do the science related to the drawdown of CO2 in many, many different forms. There are several hundred startups around the globe. And so we we did interview um a number of these uh who were mostly existent in and evident in larger cities. Um so so I found that very hopeful thinking into the future. I really do believe that um it is possible and that we will uh save um humanity in the long term by developing uh these new modalities and sending a different message and creating activism around both doing the the um development of of uh solar and wind and all of that. Keep that up, but at the same time really build up these uh the development of these other sciences that that have uh solutions. Some of these solutions are in an early developmental stage, but they give promise. And so we can do both, and we need to do both.
SPEAKER_01I love the thought, but what's scary to me is the fact that as much as you're doing to get the word out, there are still people who don't believe in this at all, you know. Um, and the you know, you had a great section on on the windmills, you know, and you talk about windmills, and to me, it seems such a logical thing. How could you be opposed to windmills where there are people who are opposed to windmills, you know, and then I won't mention any names. Um, but you know, uh you would think that'd be something we would encourage, you know, and and would be a positive thing, yet that's the other side of the story, too, that there's all this opposition to some of this research and science.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, and I think any new thing uh can create opposition. Um uh my colleague Rodney represented us in the film at Earth X in April, and and it was in Texas and Dallas, and you know, the reputation of Dallas for being um uh primary producer of uh of oil. And and the irony that he discovered is that this is after that freeze occurred in that premature freeze that occurred in Texas a few years ago, and the discovery that the grid was insufficient to maintain the heat and the electrical needs of the state at the time, there's been a an enormous increase in the development of solar and wind energy in Texas. Uh so who would have thought that that was that that would happen? Uh but the the necessity and the market factors uh have been producing the improvement around um things like uh solar wind, uh thermal, uh regenerative uh farming and various other areas, which um when you can bring those two things together, I think you have an optimal approach. Uh a lot of people don't realize that the spread of solar and to some degree wind energy, but mostly solar, is actually being done by China. China is aggressively spreading this technology around the world, and it's also benefiting from the all the market factors, whereas our country uh has this uh this kind of retro attitude, uh, certainly not all people, but uh the leadership right now, uh, which is trying to pull things back in the other direction. Um but I do think that um the economy can be a very positive force and Of the factors, not the only one. Um, we also have learned that we can't depend on uh the uh political administrations to to necessarily follow the lead. Certainly not in this country. We've seen the pendulum move back and forth, and particularly to the right, uh, over uh recent years. Uh so it needs to be a bottom-up movement where people um are demanding a change to these um to these improved uh methods. And a lot of people simply don't know about climate restoration and its importance and that it's even possible. So um the Foundation for Climate Restoration uh has as its mission to make this topic uh by 2030 a subject that people are talking about, that people are aware of, because right now um the word hasn't exactly it hasn't really reached, it hasn't gotten out. And so that's the current um emphasis in the movement.
SPEAKER_01And that's one of the things, I guess, one of the goals of the film is to talk about this and encourage people to get more interested. And I think you show that very well in showing how uh children are being brought into the process. And you were talking about schools and and they're teaching this, and you had some very it was very interesting. We had kids actually talking about this for the first time. Well, maybe the first time.
SPEAKER_00Um, there are also a lot of kids that are experiencing climate anxiety uh that are hearing only the doomsday messages, um, and uh kids and young people and others that just feel like there is no future for them. Um and and that anxiety is important to respect and and uh to enable people to talk about it, but they also need the the message that there is hope and there's grounded hope in um the scientific method and also a method that uh is based on a real love and affection for the client. Um the old messaging, or the current messaging, I should say, uh is is um unwittingly, certainly with no bad intent, but is unwittingly uh to some degree producing this sense of depression and hopelessness. Uh so without there we have no attack against the essential goal of moving from fossil fuels to these other um healthy modes of energy, but it needs to be inclusive of how we're going to in fact restore the climate to its pre-industrial condition. And and that is possible, we believe, through the development of these healthy scientific methods.
SPEAKER_01If I can put you on the spot uh just one question in terms of uh somebody seeing the film, if I can ask you to give kind of the weedest digest summary of the film, then keep it to under 57 minutes, the summary.
SPEAKER_00What's the film all about? Well, the first half of the film is is really about the foundational care and love of the planet. And we discuss uh biomimicry, which is the copying of how does nature do things and their illustrations of that. The flight of an airplane, for example, is based upon uh observation of how how birds fly, uh helicopters. Uh the science of that comes from looking at the firefly and and things in nature that uh intrigue uh scientists as to well what works. Um and so that's part of it. Uh but but really the first part of the film is is more in the territory of uh the spiritual issue, and that is uh that that we are very connected genetically and emotionally to nature. We are nature, and somehow in Western civilization, we seem to have forgotten that. We think we're supposed to dominate nature, that we are separate from, that we can exploit and control it. Well, that's not that's not working for us. That's uh really doing great destruction, that attitude. So the first part of the film really gets into that, but not in a matter of scolding and preaching at people because that's counterproductive, but really showing us the beauty of nature and how the indigenous people have always been doing this, and how we can learn with a little humility, we can learn how to do that and understand uh our our uh connection. There's a whole area called um biophilia, and that is our sense of connectedness to nature and cultivating that uh through the many ways that are possible to do that. And then the second half of the film moves toward the scientific progress and what is being envisioned, and with many, many examples of that. Um I mentioned concrete, I mentioned steel, but uh there's also uh the development of ocean iron fertilization, and that's based on observing the phenomenon of certain volcanoes, uh, the most recent one being the Mount Pinatubu off the coast of the Philippines, which in 1991 erupted an enormous eruption. And the year 18 months to two years that followed that, if you look at the the chart of the increase of CO2 going like this, well, in that period, the planet actually experienced net zero. And the theory is that it did that uh unintentionally, but it effectively did that, uh through the distribution of the iron sulfate in the in the volcanic explosion, which when it goes to certain parts of the ocean, not just anywhere in the ocean, but um the theory is that when it goes to certain areas where there are downdwelling rotational um eddies that pick it up, and they create a flourishing of plankton. And most of the oxygen in our world is produced by the flourishing of plankton in a certain way. It's like trees, except plankton are minuscule uh little plants uh in the ocean, and when they flourish in the right locations, uh they they are creating oxygen. They draw down the CO2 just like a tree does, they process it and they give off the oxygen, and the residue uh of that plant, which is carbon, will sink through the downwelling eddy to the bottom of the ocean where it stays. And this is where uh some of the most creative science is starting to be examined, and it's called local ocean iron fertilization because it's in particular parts that have to be identified in the ocean. Uh, it's not just any and everywhere, and it's not along coastlines, which would not be a good idea. But uh, this is this is absolutely fascinating that the planet experienced net zero for about an 18-month period in relation to Mount Petitubu. And it also created um uh a small veil, very thin veil of sulfate that was around the planet, which uh reduced some of the the sunshine coming in. And and that too was thought to be a contributing factor. So um these kinds of sciences need to be developed, but they need to be developed very, very carefully and using um limited areas, limited experiments to make sure that they are healthy and that they're working. Uh the development of ocean iron fertilization, for example, um, and this was demonstrated by Mount Pinatubu, actually not only creates plankton, but uh the the marine, excuse me, the marine life flourishes as well because it it feeds off of the off of the plankton. Uh so um these are some of the directions. Um the ocean is very, very important in all of this. Um before the acidification, uh, to the degree that it is of the ocean occurred, there were on most coasts kelp forests. Kelp is a phenomenal plant that grows as quickly as two feet per day, and that too produces photosynthesis. But most of those kelp forests have been destroyed through acidification of the ocean uh through through the pollution that um has developed. So there are experiments going on with development of kelp forests, and there's a certain process and methodology that's being used. And then the kelp can also be used for many things. There's things like kelp leather. Uh there are certain varieties of kelp or seaweed that are actually uh digestible. Uh we see that in uh Japanese restaurants, for example, with sushi and the the little wrappings around uh that um most people have actually tasted it. But there are many forms in which um producers are experimenting with kelp and the development of that kelp.
SPEAKER_01Vic, can I go jump in? Vic, just a couple other questions on my end. Um things I think I enjoyed about the film too was it growing so many um different experts in so many different fields. How many um people uh did you interview for this?
SPEAKER_00Well, I I would say um most of the people, uh not every single person, but most of the people that we interviewed are in the film. I believe among that young generation of scientists and engineers that we interviewed mostly at a meetup. Uh, this is a group in Baltimore where these young scientists come together on a monthly basis. And so there were about four or five of them. Uh we interviewed the the lead authors of of the book here, which has done a great job of planting the whole uh knowledge and understanding of the concept here that we're talking about. Both of them are prominently in the book. We interviewed um Bendahi Bastida, who uh is part of the indigenous world, who told us the story of the eagle and the condor. And there's a section in the film that is just pure poetry. He was just talking to us, and as as as Rodney and I were editing, I said, you know, what he's saying is essentially a poem. And we took those statements of his, and with his consent, we created this poetic section um about how we are the earth, and the earth is us. It it's poetic, but it's also very real. Uh, let's see, we uh we either interviewed directly or got the consent to use footage where interviews were done of people that are creating um carbon negative concrete or carbon negative steel. The Columbia Business School, for example, has traveled several parts of the world, and with their consent, they allowed us to use excerpts of what they're finding about these new technologies that are so healthy for the planet uh and still create the steel and the concrete that's needed. So I've never actually counted up exactly how many, but uh as you say, there's quite a few.
SPEAKER_01How long did it take you to put how long did it take you to put it together?
SPEAKER_00Well, it took me a couple of years to decide to do it. I really had to think about it because uh putting a film together is a very uh detail and exacting process. And uh I had to decide whether I was gonna make that investment. And uh when I talked with Rodney, uh Rodney picked up on the idea and really loved and understood the the idea. And in fact, he uh he had never heard of climate restoration. Now he's quite articulate and it represents us at environmental conferences and so forth. Uh so it took me about two years just to develop the idea. Then it took me another two years to do the investigation, the interviewing, and the uh working with Rodney closely on the technical part to put it together. So I guess you could say a good four years. Who should see the film? Everybody. Okay. Everybody who's interested in the environment. Uh and uh to see it with an open mind of curiosity, of appreciation for the natural world, of uh being open to a new, a new or broader message than we've been drilled with for so many years.
SPEAKER_01If you would um Vic talk about a very generous offer you made or made to me off the um offline here, but people want to see the film. How do they go about finding out about it and finding out more about it? What's the process?
SPEAKER_00Of course, yeah. Well, we're making the film available to people who uh believe that they can create um an audience for it, and we will send them uh a link to the film to review it. And if they decide that this is something they want to do, just to let us know, and we will gladly make the film available at no cost. This is sort of our investment in uh the environment and the future of uh humanity, basically. So it will cost nothing. They should go, they should go to to my website, which is lifedreamfilms.com. That's one word, life dreamfilms.com. And there's a section about this film. It's the first section of the website, and my email is on there. Um, and I can be emailed or phone, and then my phone number's on there. Um for those of would like to write it down. It's uh my name, V-I-C-C-O-M-P-H-E-R at Comcast.net, Vic Comfort Comcast.net. And and so you can find all that on the website.
SPEAKER_01And so that's the first place to start. If they want to find out more about the film and also climate restoration, check the um the website. And also, which is I think you'll find interesting, you can also find out information about your other films there as well. Is that true?
SPEAKER_00That's true. There are well, there are four of my uh films there all together. The um this one, which is featured first, and then the one about sexuality and spirituality, and the one about secondary trauma, and one of the very early films, which is about the relationship of older adults and young people, a very healthy alliance that seems to occur. And um, so they're all together. I mean, you can go to each section and learn more about each of those films.
SPEAKER_01And leads me to a final question, uh, Vic. In terms of we have this now, the fourth film uh in the can, so to speak. What's next for you? Do you have a do you have a fifth one working on? Or do we have an extra?
SPEAKER_00I said I said after the last film that that would be my last one, and and I'm going around saying that about this one. Uh so uh, you know, I don't absolutely promise, but um I I'd have to think about that some more. I'm I don't have uh a real answer to that at the moment. Uh we're just enjoying the present moment, which is uh getting this one out. And I'm finding that in just about every screening, they're well, they're the screens are being very well received, but then within that, there are frequently one or two or three individuals that get really excited about what they're learning and they contact me and they want to know, well, I'd like to screen this. Is that okay? Or tell me more, or what are the resources? And so um I'm finding that energy to be invigorating and moving us along. So that's that's the present time that I'm focused on right now.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Anyway, uh Vic, I'd like to thank you for being my guest on this edition of Blaine's World uh podcast. And hopefully one of these days, if I ever get back to the Philadelphia area, or you come to have you ever been to North Carolina?
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, actually I do. Um, I have a brother from North Carolina. He's coming to visit me this afternoon. Uh he lives in Hendersonville. Do you know where that is?
SPEAKER_01Sure, that's uh I'm I'm 20 minutes away from Hendersonville.
SPEAKER_00Um I I do get down there. I have a close friend. In fact, uh the film has been screened um in um actually my brother's from Waynesville, but the film was screened in Hendersonville uh at a church there. A close friend of mine uh who's an environmentalist got very excited about the film and screened it uh to a group at a I think the church is called Trinity Presbyterian. So it's it's shown in all kinds of environments, uh secular and sometimes uh spiritual settings. Depends on who the person is.
SPEAKER_01Well, anyway, if folks are interested, again go to the website. And uh, like I said, one of these days maybe we can pump into each other. That'd be great. Thanks a lot. I'd love to meet you. Yeah, thank you, Blaine. It's been a pleasure.