Reel Power Screens at Power Shift

Reel Power is excited to announce that our films will be part of the 2013 Power Shift conference. Power Shift is the world’s largest youth gathering and training for climate change solutions. This year more than ten thousand youth leaders from every walk of life — college students, young environmental justice leaders, DREAMers, young people of faith, young workers — will come together to learn from one another, to build and launch strategic campaigns in their own communities. Reel Power films will be featured during Saturday and Sunday of the…

Working Films’ Reel Power and Josh Fox Bring “Gasland 2” to Texas and North Carolina

Director Josh Fox is headed on a Southern Grassroots Tour with Gasland 2, the recent follow-up to his 2011 Academy Award-nominated documentary Gasland. We are psyched to announce that as part of our Reel Power efforts we have teamed up with grassroots groups in Texas and North Carolina to co-host 4 stops on the tour. “Gasland 2 features real people – ordinary Americans – whose lives have been upended by the dirty and dangerous process of fracking.” Fox said. “That’s why I’m working with environmental leaders and advocates across the…

Reel Power Film Festival Review

Our core effort for Reel Power 2012 was the Reel Power Film Festival (RPFF) – a series of targeted grassroots screenings and events to build solidarity among frontline communities and push for renewable energy alternatives. The films in the series offer new points of entry for difficult conversations about changes that need to be made at the local, state and national levels. Through grants to on-the-ground organizers and nonprofit groups, we connected to those leading change in affected communities and encouraged them to cross-pollinate their strategies for environmental justice. Our…

Petrochemical America: Picturing Cancer Alley

On October 2nd, I attended a screening of Blue Vinyl (a documentary by Working Films’ cofounder, Judith Helfand about the hazardous effects of Polyvinyl Chloride, or PVC) at the Aperture Gallery in NYC. When I stepped out of the elevator onto the 4th floor, I was greeted by enormous photo prints of industrial Louisiana landscapes along the corridor of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Holy Rosary Cemetery and Dow Chemical Corporation (Union Cardbide Complex), Taft, Louisiana, 1998. The Union Carbide Corporation purchased the property of the Holy…

Reel Power Update from Mini-grantees

Last March, Working Films announced the fourteen mini-grantees for the Reel Power Film Festival, a series of documentaries that bring you stories from the frontline of our energy future. Organizations hosted Reel Power events to encourage cross-pollination of grassroots organizing strategy and to inspire their communities to leverage local resources and networks. Here are some of the exciting report backs that we’ve received from the first screenings: Frack Free Catskills is a group fighting fracking in the Hudson Valley and Catskill Communities, as well as throughout New York State. They organized…

Back in the U.K. at Sheffield!

Last month, Working Films returned to the Sheffield Doc-Fest, June 13 – 17, hosting a third year of our highly interactive Story Leads to Action panel, co-hosted with the Festival. Coordinated by our UK staffer Sarah Ross, and facilitated by Robert West, Story Leads to Action brought together filmmaker Frederick Gertten, and his new film Big Boys Gone Bananas*, with Marcos Zunino, a legal officer at Article 19 in London specializing in freedom of expression and international law. In 2009, when Frederick Gertten’s film Bananas!* was accepted into the Los…

Announcing Reel Power Grassroots Mini-grantees

One month ago, we invited organizations and grassroots groups that are impacted by natural resource extraction, climate change or are tapping into renewable energy solutions to apply for one of fourteen mini-grants to support their Reel Power Film Festival (RPFF). Thanks to all that helped us spread the word. We received an incredible response. We are very excited to provide these films to organizations that will use them to advance their outstanding efforts. The following four projects are the recipients of the first tier grants. For these organizations Working Films’ Reel…

Semper Fi Always Faithful- UK premiere

The award-winning documentary SEMPER FI: ALWAYS FAITHFUL is coming to the UK. Working Films is partnering with the filmmakers on a targeted engagement campaign in NC and the US. YOU MUST SEE this story of one Marine’s determination to hold his Corps accountable. DOCHOUSE presents SEMPER FI: ALWAYS FAITHFUL Screening Date: March 8th, 2012 Time: 8:30pm Location: Prince Charles Cinema For tickets and more information: http://www.princecharlescinema.com/indexreview.php?display=1939 There will be a satellite SKYPE Q&A with the Directors after the film. ABOUT THE FILM: Retired Master Sergeant Jerry Ensminger devoted nearly 25…

Dirty Business Takes on Chicago

On February 10th, we organized a screening of Dirty Business in Chicago with The Environmental Justice Alliance of Greater Southeast Chicago and The Center for investigative Reporting. Director Peter Bull attended and hosted the Q&A after the film. Below is his recap of the event: I was invited out to Chicago’s Southeast Side to do a Q&A after a screening of Dirty Business, hosted by a coalition of local environmental and faith groups who are trying to shut down two outmoded, badly-polluting old coal-fired power plants in the Pilsen and…

Reel Power Film Festival: Grassroots Mini-grant Opportunity

Do you live in a community that has been impacted or likely to be by mountaintop removal, fracking, or a coal-fired power plant? Are you in a community where alternative energy solutions are being implemented? Or, have you already hosted one of the Reel Power films and would like to explore the related issues around coal, gas, climate change and renewable energy solutions with your community? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the Reel Power Film Festival may be for you. Working Films is pleased to…