Environmental Justice
Events
Film and Activism
Working Films News

Artists and Filmmakers Take on Coal Ash

November 3, 2014 BY Molly Murphy

Cucalorus 2014This November marks the 20th anniversary of the Cucalorus Film Festival, an internationally recognized event that has never shied away from connecting art to important social and environmental issues. Working Films is honored to partner with Cucalorus to engage key leaders and community members around the issue of coal ash pollution. Through our Coal Ash Stories initiative, we are supporting Cucalorus Work-in-Progress film Coal Ash Chronicles. We will be coordinating special viewings and hosting a related art installation Smoke and Water. Join us at the following art and film events this November 6th – 15th.

Below is a list of all public Coal Ash Events at this year’s Cucalorus Film Festival:

Smoke and Water
Art installation gallery hours
SEACC Action Center
317 Castle Street, Wilmington, NC 28401
FREE and open to public
Artist Greg Lindquist, Working Films and other key leaders will be in attendance.

Thursday, 11/13 12pm – 5pm

Friday, 11/14, 12pm – 5pm

Friday, 11/14, 5pm – 7pm
Opening Reception

Saturday, 11/15 11am – 1pm
Conversation with Greg at 11:30.

Coal Ash Chronicles
Public film screening times

Thursday, 11/6, 7pm – 8:30pm
NC Coastal Federation
309 W. Salisbury St., Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480
Free to members, $10 non-members
Co-hosted by Cucalorus Film Festival and Working Films.

Friday, 11/14, 7:30 pm – 9pm
Cucalorus Film Festival
Work-in-Progress screening and feedback session
Jengo’s Playhouse, 815 Princess Street, Wilmington, NC 28401
$10, purchase ticket
Program with filmmakers Rhiannon Fionn and Nell Carden Gray, with participation of Alternate Roots, and Working Films.

About the projects:

CAC title with portraits

Coal Ash Chronicles is a film about trash in America. Not the trash we’re used to disappearing from the curb, but trash that’s created by coal plants. Coal ash is what remains after coal is burned to generate electricity. Only, unlike the ash left in your fireplace after wood is burned, coal ash is replete with heavy metals and radioactive elements. It’s everywhere; it could be part of the building you’re reading this in right now, and it could be soaking, draining or leaking into your town’s drinking water.

The film’s story is told by Rhiannon Fionn, an independent investigative journalist who’s reported on coal ash concerns in Charlotte, N.C., since 2009. In 2012, she took off for Alaska, and all parts in between, during a nearly two-and-a-half year mission to collect coal ash stories from multiple perspectives in an effort to discover if there were any common threads or real solutions … she found both.

lindquist SEACC sketch

Smoke and Water is a project of New York-based, Wilmington-born artist Greg Lindquist. Greg will create an installation on the walls of the Southeastern Alliance for Community Change Action Center. The project will explore coal ash pollution and include statements from key leaders and impacted community members. Lindquist will create his installation in collaboration with local artists and art students in the community, as well as organizational partners of Working Films’ Coal Ash Stories project.

RELATED NEWS

Come on In: Building Spaces People Want to Join

How can film screenings become the welcoming spaces organizers need: places where people feel invited in, and leave feeling like they belong? In this conversation, Working Films’ Director of Campaigns and Strategy, Andy Myers, chats with Daniel Solorzano with Amanecer in El Paso, Texas and Warren Tidwell with Alabama Center for Rural Organizing and Systemic Solutions (ACROSS) about what it takes to create spaces that break down barriers, dissolve left/right binaries, and give more people a sense of ownership in our movements. These two organizers were part of the 2025…

Announcing the 2026 Impact Kickstart Cohort!

Now in its eighth year, Working Films’ Impact Kickstart resources underrepresented documentary filmmakers to develop and implement impact campaigns that meaningfully engage audiences, partners, and supporters. This year, three incredible film teams have been selected to receive $20,000 each in impact campaign funding, along with in-kind partnership and strategy development from Working Films, and participation in a year-long cohort experience where filmmakers can learn from and support one another. Hannah Hearn, Impact Coordinator and Fellowships Lead at Working Films, reflected on the ways Impact Kickstart has evolved to respond at…

Get to Know the 2025 Rural Cinema Cohort

At its heart, Rural Cinema is about harnessing the power of story to drive change. The program trains environmental justice organizers to use film as a tool to bring people together, spark meaningful conversations, and inspire action on the challenges their communities face. With hands-on training, access to films, and funding to host their own series, participants transform storytelling into tangible, local impact. This year, we’re excited to shine a spotlight on the 2025 Rural Cinema cohort, a remarkable group of organizations from across the country that are reshaping what’s…