Dirty Business Goes to Chicago

Dirty Business is an impressive film that takes a hard look at the cycle of coal, and examines the PR campaign of clean coal and its subsequent consequences. The film also looks at the extent to which we could replace coal by increasing our energy efficiency by telling the stories of innovators who are pointing the way to an alternative energy future. Working Films, along with The Center for Investigative Reporting and The Environmental Justice Alliance of Greater Southeast Chicago, will host a free screening of the film that’s open…

SEMPER FI: ALWAYS FAITHFUL Comes Home to Jacksonville

Robert West, Working Films; Tony Hardmon and Rachel Libert, filmmakers; Master Sgt Jerry Ensminger at Cucalorus. On Saturday, November 12, Semper Fi: Always Faithful screened at a “sold out” crowd at our local and hip indie film fest Cucalorus. The next day, Sunday, November 13, Working Films Robert West and filmmakers Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon took Semper Fi back home to Jacksonville, NC and Camp Lejeune for its first non-festival premiere. The film tells the story of retired Marine Jerry Ensminger’s fight for justice on behalf of U.S. soldiers…

Story Leads to Action: What's On Your Plate & Pipe Fire

    This month at 92Y Tribeca, our STORY LEADS TO ACTION series will celebrate two films in our REEL FOOD initiative: What’s on Your Plate?: two years and running with extraordinary impact and more to come, and Pipe Fire, just starting it’s engagement campaign. What’s On Your Plate? is a witty and thought-provoking documentary about kids and food politics produced and directed by award-winning Catherine Gund, and co-produced by her daughter Sadie Rain Hope-Gund and her daughter’s friend Safiyah Kai Russell Riddle. Filmed over the course of one year, the…

Story Leads to Action: Semper Fi

Reminder — Join us for our fourth season of Story Leads to Action at 92Y Tribeca! Chicken & Egg Pictures & Working Films are excited to announce the new season line up. Story Leads to Action is a monthly series featuring Chicken & Egg and Working Films’ documentary makers coming together with strategic advocates, educators and YOU, the audience, to brainstorm the design of audience engagement strategies for the featured social issue films. Our new season launches this Thursday, October 27th with the powerful documentary Semper Fi: Always Faithful, the…

Land of Opportunity's Interactive Web-based Initiative

When I was in Detroit over the summer for the Allied Media Conference, I attended a workshop presented by Evan Casper-Futterman, Co-Producer of the film Land of Opportunity. He explained how the film is using Mozilla Foundation’s WebMadeMovies initiative to create an interactive web campaign. Afterwards, I caught up with Evan to find out a bit more about how the interactive videos work and supplement the film. Here’s what he had to say: A key component of the Land of Opportunity documentary project is the production and distribution of interactive…

Reel Power: Strength in Numbers

“Being part of this collaboration is saying we can work together to affect a larger issue; to affect change.” – Peter Bull, filmmaker of Dirty Business As Judith Helfand states in the video, “There’s no silver bullet that is going to fix climate change.” If that was true, An Inconvenient Truth would have stopped climate change. We need many compelling stories from lots of different places to convey a comprehensive picture of the problem and solutions we can pursue. Reel Power films weave together the narratives of the different communities…

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front at Sheffield Doc/Fest

Story Leads to Action Sheffield Doc/Fest Venue: The Crucible Studio Friday, June 10, 10:00am Moderators: Working Films co-founders Robert West & Judith Helfand Story Leads to Action makes the process of community engagement interactive and transparent. Join Working Films UK and Sheffield Doc/Fest as we craft the first steps in an interactive campaign for Marshall Curry’s new film If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front. Award-winning Guardian journalist Paul Lewis, Greenpeace’s Senior Climate Adviser Charlie Kronick, UK Uncut’s Adam Ramsay and John Stewart (credited with stopping…

Reel Power at Power Shift

“We’re here at Power Shift. We get down to business. We get down to action.” – JOSH FOX, Director of Gasland Before a packed house of 8,000 youth climate activists, Gasland Director Josh Fox welcomed the enthusiastic crowd with his banjo and a call to action. Josh’s message was simple – natural gas is not a transition fuel away from coal, and we must stand united for truly clean alternatives. Josh was at Power Shift, a national gathering of over 10,000 high school and college climate justice organizers. Along with…

Reel Power April: Sun Come Up

Sun Come Up is an Oscar-nominated short documentary that follows the relocation of some of the Carteret Islanders, a peaceful community living on a remote island chain in the South Pacific Ocean, and now, some of the world’s first environmental refugees. When rising seas threaten their survival, the islanders face a painful decision: they must leave their beloved land in search of a new place to call home. The film follows a group of young Carteret Islanders led by Nick Hakata as they search for land in Bougainville, an autonomous…

Reel Power @ PowerShift

Reel Power is excited to announce that our films will be part of the 2011 Power Shift program from April 15-18 in Washington D.C. This year’s Power Shift will feature Vice President Al Gore, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Green Jobs leader Van Jones, 350.org founder Bill McKibben, and a Reel Power film festival! Power Shift is the world’s largest youth gathering and training for climate change solutions. This year the conference will serve as the largest grassroots organizing training in history with the goals of catalyzing the clean energy economy,…