Empowering the Green Screen: Redford Center Unveils 13 Groundbreaking Environmental Films to Spark Change

Redford CenterThe company, one of several U.S.-based non-profit organizations dedicated solely to producing environmental impact films, has selected 13 films for funding, marking a significant expansion of the organization’s grants program, increasing the number of projects and funding amounts.

International film collectives selected for “high impact and unique solution-based topics” will each receive $25,000 to support project completion and advance their impactful efforts and goals.

The Redford Center received more than 500 applications from 67 countries, marking the broadest and most globally diverse open recruitment in the organization’s history and demonstrating the overwhelming presence of influential independent films and the notable gap in funding and support currently available. said. To the film industry.

The Center was established as a direct response to the lack of available support and is a key pillar of the work that the late documentary filmmaker James Redford wanted to prioritize. Launched in 2016, the grants program has awarded a total of $2 million to 60 documentary film projects, with funders including the Walton Family Foundation, New York Community Trust, Manitou Fund, Farvue Foundation and GoPro for a Cause.

“There is so much opposition. climate Time and a defeatist mindset are the most important things to make progress. This new group of Redford Center beneficiaries fills me with hope. Their stories vividly paint a very different picture than we get from mainstream media. Collectively, they reassure us that we are actually gaining environmental benefits. Individually, it shows courageous leaders taking action, how communities come together to solve complex problems, and how young people are rising up for the future. “All of this will undoubtedly provide further inspiration.” Jill TiedmanExecutive Director of the Redford Center.

“I couldn’t dream of a more exciting group of films and filmmakers to support. There is something for everyone in this group, including the shared vision of the future we all dream of: a world where all people and the planet can come together. May you prosper.”

The Center also provides professional development opportunities for recipient filmmakers through mentoring support from a grant advisory committee comprised of environmental and film industry leaders who work closely with each team. We hold direct beneficiary summits through workshops and networking.

Recent projects include: Raising Liberty Square Directed by Oscar-nominated director Katja Esso, it is currently streaming on PBS. panda’s path Eric Bendick’s National Geographic Film recently won an Emmy for Best Nature Documentary and is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. Impossible Townaward-winning documentary by Meg Griffiths and Scott Faris; and take it homeIt was directed and narrated by Blackfeet brothers Ivan and Ivy MacDonald and Daniel Glick. lily gladstone.

The 13 new projects below are all feature films in various stages of production.

Derek’s Ark – James Dahmer Dawson (Director), Serena Kennedy (Producer), David Brodeur (Producer), Adam Wishart (Executive Producer). like climate change With the UK hit by its wettest winter on record, Derek’s Ark tells the comedic story of two clashing visions in the English countryside.

good fire – Ronnie Jo Draper (Director), Marisa Rilla (Co-Director), Jen Lee Smith (Producer), Nicole Docta (Producer). Europeans have been burning the land since ancient times to maintain the health and balance of the ecosystem. Over the past 100 years, settlers have banned fires, and the environment and people have suffered. Now the Euros are returning gunpowder to the ground.

green gold – Sélim Benzeghia (Director and Producer), Ivonne Serna (Co-Director and Producer). Mexican communities are risking everything to stop cartels destroying their lands and lives to make money from avocados.

Green is the shade of fire – Arya Rothe (director, producer, writer), Cristina Hanes (director, producer, writer, cinematographer), Isabella Rinaldi (director, producer, writer, sound recordist). At risk of being driven off her land by iron mining development, an indigenous woman decides to lead her community against displacement and deforestation.

between worlds – Masha Karpoukhina (Director and Producer), Michael Preston (Co-Director), Rose Wyatt (Producer), Tasha Van Zandt (Supervising Producer), Pippa Ehrlich (Executive Producer) Amid climate chaos, the Winnemem Wintu tribe fights to protect what is sacred. . It promises to return ancestral Chinook salmon to California waters just as the world’s roaming salmon stocks are collapsing. Guided by Chief Caleen Sisk, they must travel to New Zealand, where the salmon’s genetic descendants have miraculously survived.

On Earth we trust – Sophie Morgan (Director and Producer), Adrienne Hall (Producer) Mistrust between faith and science is the biggest obstacle in the fight against climate change, but in 2008, one person stood on the threshold of changing the world. This is a documentary about the rise and fall of a man who almost saved the Earth and his subsequent story.

barren land – Reniqua Allen-Lamphere (Director and Producer), Crystal Whaley (Producer). Examining how the climate crisis impacts Black reproductive health. Through several interconnected stories, the film explores the pain, frustration, and joy of a Black family navigating the difficult path to parenthood as the air becomes dirtier, the world warms, and extreme weather becomes common.

1 point 5 points (working title) – Alexandra Carey (Director), Jeff Reichert (Director), Lisa Remington (Producer), Diane Becker (Producer), Melanie Miller (Producer) A true cinematic geopolitical thriller that follows key climate diplomats and activists around the world. We are fighting to save and achieve climate and environmental justice.

panda diplomacy – Devon Blackwell (Director), Jessica Kingdon (Producer), Harry Vaughan (Producer), Sigrid Dyekjaer (Executive Producer). It peels back the layers of emotion surrounding panda conservation and reveals the disturbing realities that hinder the primary goal of protecting the species from human ambitions.

acid rain movie – Victoria Lin (Director and Producer), Jade Blair (Co-Producer). It follows one of the greatest environmental success stories in history, showing how pioneering scientists and activists did the seemingly impossible: persuade politicians to reduce fossil fuel emissions.

invisible valley – Elivia Shaw (Director and Producer), George Alfaro (Associate Producer) An immersive portrait of California’s Central Valley, The Invisible Valley captures daily life in the world’s most productive agricultural region and the most polluted place in the United States. Through intimate observational scenes that transform farm labor, mechanized harvesting, asthma clinics, ambulances, and living rooms into surreal poetic fields, the film reveals the intimate, everyday reality of environmental change on the body and mind.

This was the place – Erika Cohn (Director, Producer, Writer), Nicole Docta (Producer). A hybrid documentary that cinematically weaves magical realism and socio-political commentary about the disappearance of the Great Salt Lake through a visually stunning environmental thriller.

To use acid – Casey Carter (Director, Cinematographer, Editor), Colin Cassingham (Producer), Jonah McCone (Producer) Physics, geology, and democracy collide in the vast interior of the United States in a series of vignettes of six locations that are candidates for sacrificial nuclear arenas. do.