Cohousing-L Mailing List: Opportunity to be featured in docuseries

[Trish Becker-Hafnor (trish]

We cohousers have a rare opportunity to share some of our values on a much 
larger stage. CohoUS has been contacted by a major media company about filming 
at a cohousing community for an upcoming docuseries program. The program is 
about neighborhood conflict. Their idea is that when people who live in 
cohousing get into conflict with a neighbor, they do a better job of working 
through it because they have systems in place for mediation of conflict.  What 
they would like to film is an active conflict between members of a cohousing 
community.  It could be a community-wide conflict, or a conflict between two 
people who happen to live in the same community.  If there are other members of 
the community who help with conflict, they would also be part of the program.

Trish Becker-Hafnor and Karen Gimnig have both talked to the representative 
from this media company. We think this could be a really great opportunity to 
show the world what cohousing can do and to be a model of disagreeing 
respectfully that is much needed in the US today.  However, participating in 
this project would be a vulnerable experience for the participants and 
potentially for the community as a whole.  We and you would not have control of 
the final product. The crew would bring cameras into the community in a way 
that would likely feel invasive.

If you and your community would be interested in this opportunity, Trish or 
Karen would be happy to talk to you and to put you in touch with our contact.  
At that point, it would be up to you to arrange whatever deal you wish, or to 
decide not to. We do not expect that they will offer any financial compensation 
to the community.  It seems like there might be a possibility of them funding a 
mediator or process consultant to help, but that isn't currently their plan.

If this is something that interests you, please contact Trish at trish [at] 
cohous.org or Karen at gimnig [at] gmail.com<mailto:gimnig [at] gmail.com> for 
further information.

Trish Becker
Executive Director | Cohousing Association of the US