This Friday, June 6th, 2014 will mark a year since our co-founder Robert West passed away. All this week we will be posting tributes to him from his friends, family, and colleagues. Today we are sharing the remarks given by Robert’s dear friends Betsy Bilger and Tom Warshauer at his memorial service held last June at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, NC. Re-reading these remembrances brought smiles to our faces, and we’ve spent the morning in the office telling stories about our dynamic friend and colleague. We hope that…
Imagine being afraid to drink your water, take a bath, fish, or farm. These are the fears facing communities near the Duke Energy coal ash spill and in areas around other coal-fired power plants in North Carolina. You’re invited to Coal Ash Stories, an event featuring four short films focused on coal ash, public health concerns, related policy, and ways that communities are responding. Events are taking place in Wilmington, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Belews Creek, Winston Salem, Charlotte, and Asheville. Come learn about the issues, talk with community members, and find out…
Working Films, the NC-NAACP, and state and local organizations from around North Carolina are partnering to present MORAL MOVIES – a four month series of award-winning films to jumpstart community dialogue and action on social, economic, and environmental issues relevant to the state. The series of free screenings will kick off with American Teacher, a documentary that follows the lives and careers of four teachers and offers an opportunity to spotlight teacher pay and public education in North Carolina, which recently dropped to 46th nationally in rankings of teacher salaries.…
Working Films’ home state of North Carolina gained national attention this year for its Moral Monday protests, when thousands gathered at the capitol building every Monday from April through July to protest the regressive actions of the state legislature. From cuts to unemployment insurance, to tax cuts for the state’s wealthiest citizens, loosening of environmental regulations, to suppressing the right to vote – a multitude of harsh new policies are threatening the social safety net, education, the economy, voting access, women’s health, and the environment. We’ve responded with a plan to…
Since 1999, Working Films has harnessed the humanity, power and vision of nonfiction filmmaking to educate viewers and mobilize communities for positive social change — at home, on the street, and in the halls where public policy gets made. We’re asking you to give today to support Working Films’ unique approach to making “stories lead to action.” 2013 has been a year of transition. In June we tragically lost Robert West, our beloved co-founder and executive director, to brain cancer. Although deeply saddened, we renewed our commitment to carry out…
Working Films brought Reel Power to Power Shift, the largest national youth climate conference, which took place in Pittsburgh, PA this year. Wearing his Peaceful Uprising t-shirt, Josh Fox gave a keynote address on Friday night where he told the crowd, “There can be no democracy until we have freedom from fossil fuels.” The audience couldn’t agree more. Check out Josh’s keynote online (with the Reel Power trailer starting at 46 minutes), where he makes the interconnectedness of the issues clear and calls everyone to find their role in the…
Gasland Part II screened at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC on October 7th to a packed house! Working Films’ Reel Power initiative and Clean Water for NC coordinated this effort with the Gasland team to grow the anti-fracking movement in the state at this critical time. Below is a photo blog of the event, community, groups, conversation and action. Working Films – Reel Power info table
To jumpstart our efforts to support state-based work to address climate change, we’ve partnered with filmmaker Josh Fox, state level organizations, and local grassroots groups to host special screenings of Gasland 2 in Texas and North Carolina – two battlegrounds in the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) debate. The tour started in Texas, where the film filled theaters in San Antonio, Dallas, and Fort Worth. Fox moderated Q&A sessions that spotlighted subjects of the film and groups that have been organizing against fracking. “Many of the areas that face increasing drought are…
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…
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…
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