Make Art for Climate

This year we’ve worked with a number of films on environmental issues, including The Age of Stupid and No Impact Man, where a prevalent theme is the need for a binding and just international agreement to address climate change. With world leaders set to gather in Copenhagen in just under a month to negotiate a new international climate treaty, we need President Obama and the Senate to show leadership in enacting bold climate solutions. Leading organizations, such as 1Sky, are urging people to make a creative statement through “Make Art…

Cucalorus Film Festival

Working Films is proud to be coordinating panel discussions after two films at the Cucalorus Films Festival in our hometown of Wilmington, NC. Named one of the “25 Coolest Film Festivals” by Movie Maker Magazine, Cucalorus runs November 11th-15th at venues across city. Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama that uncovers the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Crude will screen at 10am Thursday November 12th. In…

Tales from Planet Earth – What's On Your Plate?

As part of the community events of Tales from Planet Earth, Troy Gardens and MACSAC participated as community partners in the screening event of What’s On Your Plate? along with filmmakers Catherine Gund and Sadie Rain Hope-Gund. What’s On Your Plate? follows Sadie and Safiyah as they talk to each other, food activists, farmers, new friends, storekeepers, their families, and the viewer, with a mission to understand the story behind the food we eat. This film traveled to Madison a year ago as part of the build up to this…

Tales from Planet Earth 2009 film fest returns with broad community ambitions

Reposted from Isthmus: The Daily Page By David Medaris Tuesday 10/27/2009 Gregg Mitman thought Tales from Planet Earth would be a one-shot deal. The UW-Madison history of science professor and interim director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies was a principal organizer of the 2007 environmental film festival. “Opening night, there was a line two blocks long waiting to get into the Orpheum,” he remembers. He had anticipated 500 people might show up that first night. Instead, more than twice that number turned out. By the end of the…

Join the Garbage Dreams' Tour

Launching nation-wide on October 15th, the Garbage Dreams‘ Tour is a community-based screening campaign aimed at demonstrating the true value of trash and the cost of throwing out the expertise of the Zaballeen, Egypt’s “garbage people,” who recycle 80% of everything they collect. Get involved by hosting a screening with the community screening package! “Garbage Dreams is a moving story of young men searching for ways to eke out a living for their families and facing tough choices as they try to do the right thing for the planet. Mai Iskander…

Huffington Post Hosts No Impact Week

Will you go No Impact for a week? Come on, it’s only a week. Huffington Post has partnered with the No Impact Project to bring No Impact Week to their readers on October 18th. This summer, Working Films hosted a strategy summit for No Impact Man in preparation for Colin’s highly anticipated book, award winning blog, and companion documentary about his family’s year long experiment in sustainability. The summit brought together the creative energies of the No Impact Project with leading environmental organizations such as 350.org, 1Sky, Alliance for Climate…

Welcome to Boot Camp!

Last month, Kristin and I attended the kickoff for the Community Engagement Through Film course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Our own co-founder, Judith Helfand, is the resident filmmaker teaching the course this semester along with Gregg Mitman of The Nelson Institute’s Center for Culture, History and the Environment. This course is built entirely on Working Films’ M.O. – How can the movie be in service of the movement? There are eight films that the students are focusing on, and they are appropriately linked up with community partners who work…

No Impact Man Goes Beyond the Individual

Before a film launches, we often times host a strategy meeting, or summit, to pull together a group of organizations that will set the direction for the film’s campaign and point us to the upcoming opportunities where the film can help build the movement. A couple weeks ago  we hosted a strategy summit for No Impact Man – a highly anticipated book and documentary film about Colin Beavan’s family’s year long experiment in sustainability. We met with leading organizations such as 1Sky, 350, Alliance for Climate Protection, Business Alliance for…

A look into our Filmmaker Services: Consultations

Working Films offers a range of services specifically for filmmakers. Among those services are resource documents, residencies, summit meetings and free consultations to name a few. Over the years, we have provided one-on-one consultations to over 450 filmmakers at many different stages of their film. Many filmmakers are full of questions while some aren’t really quite sure where to begin. Prior to the actual conversation, filmmakers fill out a short, four question form about their film which helps prepare us in finding the best possible strategies and suggestions for their…

Climate Matters Video Contest

What’s better than the opportunity to make a video that sends an inspiring message about climate change to our next president? How about the chance to win a cash prize and your video broadcast on internet and TV channels?1Sky and Brighter Planet are inviting Americans to create powerful video messages that deliver a clear message to Washington: We’re ready for strong leadership on climate change. Upload your 30- or 60- second video to the contest page on Vimeo.com before September 22, 2008 to compete for $4,500 in cash prizes: www.vimeo.com/climatematters.…