

Working Films Initiative
Release Date: Ongoing since 2010
Discussion guide: Reel Power Toolkit_1.pdf
Other online resouces: Facebook
ScreeningHQ
Toolkit
Reel Power: Films Fueling The Energy Revolution is a new type of film experience that addresses the most important environmental and social justice issues of our time.
Reel Power brings you stories from the frontline of our energy crisis to get your community talking and taking action. From a woman in Kentucky trying to protect her home against the ravages of mountaintop removal, to an indigenous leader in Peru standing up against the exploitation of the Amazon, to a group of young people in California finding opportunity in a renewable energy training program - the Reel Power collection features individuals and communities fighting for a just and sustainable future to inspire a massive shift towards a clean energy future. We are exploring plans to work further with 2012 Reel Power Film Festival hosts the Texas Drought Project and in North Carolina with Clean Water for North Carolina and their statewide climate-justice coalitions.
Screen Reel Power Films in Your Community
Go to ScreeningHQ to host a screening, or contact Reel Power director Kristin Henry with any questions or help with setting up a Reel Power Film Festival: khenry [at] workingfilms.org. See how grassroots groups are using the films in their communities from an update on our blog.
Films Out Now:
Cape Spin
Cape Spin tackles the root causes of society’s inability to produce a large-scale solution to the global energy crisis it created, framing the events of the Cape Wind project as a microcosm of America’s struggle toward sustainability and energy independence. Cape Spin is available to begin screening in the Fall of 2012. Contact their film team to set up a community screening; contact info@rebirthproductions.net for more details. Stay connected with the film by liking it on Facebook.
Deep in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky, Beverly May and Terry Ratliff find themselves at the center of a contentious community battle over a proposed mountaintop removal coal mine. Purchase the film and download screening toolkits here.
Dirty Business: "Clean Coal" and the Battle for Our Energy Future is a 90-minute documentary produced by the Center for Investigative Reporting that aims to give a full accounting of the true cost of our dependence on coal for electricity in the age of climate change and highlights communities that are integrating renewable energy projects across the country. Purchase the film and download community screening toolkits here.
When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. Purchase the film and download community screening toolkits here.
Split Estate maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health. Purchase the film and community screening toolkits here.
Sun Come Up
Sun Come Up follows the relocation of some of the 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. Purchase the film here.
Films Coming Soon:
The films below are all in production. We will provide groups hosting a Reel Power Film Festival with a special DVD of all the film trailers that includes extra clips and resources that are relevant to grassroots organizing. Pair the trailers that interest you with the films above to create a dynamic event.
Cooked
Cooked, a feature length documentary film and engagement project due out in 2013, is a story about the politics of disaster. The film will boldly ask questions every U.S. city must address, be it faced with extreme weather or extreme poverty. Will their most vulnerable citizens die of the heat? Or will they die of long-term social and economic disinvestment? Can the disaster masters, "crisis czars" and emergency preparedness teams conceive of community resilience as a preemptive necessity -- before the next disaster?
Stay connected with the film by liking it on Facebook.
Green Shall Overcome
Green Shall Overcome is a feature length documentary in production due out in early 2013 about Van Jones, the controversial environmental activist. In five short years, Jones has catapulted himself from a little known Bay Area activist to an internationally recognized innovator, handpicked by the Obama Administration to serve as a Special Advisor to the President. Jones’ impressive climb came on the strength of his visionary initiative for “green-collar jobs” which are designed to address two of the most daunting domestic challenges facing the United States today: over-dependence on fossil fuels and an unemployed workforce, trained for the jobs of yesterday.
Solarize This
Solarize This is a feature length documentary in production due out in 2013. In a toxic city where oil spills, ecological red-alerts, and poverty are commonplace, the film asks the hard questions of how a green economy may actually be built, through the stories of three working-class trainees at a solar power vocational program in Richmond, California. The film team is currently seeking to raise funds to complete a full-length rough cut of the film. You can contribute with a tax-deductible donation through SpeakOut.
When Two Worlds Collide
When Two Worlds Collide is a feature length documentary due out in 2013. The film follows the hazardous journey of an Amazonian leader confronting rules of the globalization game created by developed countries in order to protect corporate interests. With the rainforest in jeopardy, this apocalyptic story presents two colliding visions that shape the climate future of our world. Stay connected with the film by liking it on Facebook.
Reel Power is proud to partner with:
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We are more effective together than we are apart.
Reel Power is a Working Films initiative that is part of our commitment to supporting the movement for a clean and just energy future. This film and activist collaborative came out of a field-building retreat that we co-hosted with, and generously supported by, Chicken & Egg Pictures and The Fledgling Fund.
The films chosen to participate tell character-driven stories that take us into the issues at hand in personal yet universal ways.
The collaboration has previously conducted a monthly film series in partnership with a number of NGO's and has attended related conferences to host tables, workshops and special screening events. We kicked off at Appalachia Rising, a national conference and day of action, and attended Power Shift, the largest youth climate conference in the US. As we move forward, we will support grassroots and campus groups to host a Reel Power Film Festival in their community, connecting the underlying themes of climate change and our energy future.
Reel Power is supported by the Badger Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation with founding support from Chicken & Egg Pictures and The Fledgling Fund.

Join the Reel Power Revolution!
1. Host a Reel Power Film Festival in your community.
Hosting screening events are an easy way to engage large audiences with important conversations and actions that will help you further your organizing goals for a just energy future. Five of our films are currently available for screenings and a special DVD of all the film trailers that includes extra clips and resources that are relevant to grassroots organizing are available for hosts. Go to ScreeningHQ to host a screening, or contact Kristin Henry at khenry [at] workingfilms.org for help setting up a Reel Power Film Festival.
2. Stay Connected. Be sure you and your friends like us on Facebook.
3. Join 350.org and their Fossil Free effort for colleges, cities, states, and churches to divest in the fossil fuel industry. Divestment is the opposite of an investment as it it simply means getting rid of stocks, bonds or investment funds that are unethical or morally ambiguous. Fossil Free is working to loosen the grip that coal, oil and gas companies have on our government and financial markets.






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