Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek Tours North Carolina

Working Films, Bennett College, UNC-Chapel Hill and Warren Wilson College are bringing filmmaker Leah Mahan on a tour across North Carolina this February. Screenings of her documentary Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek will connect faculty, students, and local residents to issues of environmental justice in the state. February 10, 2015, 8pm Warren Wilson College Holden Auditorium, Holden Arts Center, Asheville, NC 28815 Public parking available on campus. Please RSVP to ensure your seat: hharvey@warren-wilson.edu, or 828-771-3062. February 11, 2015 at 6 pm Bennett College Global…

Coal Ash Stories Events in Lumberton and Pittsboro

We’re hard at work bringing Coal Ash Stories to even more areas in North Carolina, and two recent screenings highlight the importance of bringing these film to communities that face the potential hazards of coal ash pollution. Events in Lumberton (Robeson County) and Pittsboro (Chatham County) were organized by local organizations who want to assure that their sites – and all 14 coal ash storage locations across the state – are properly cleaned up. On the banks of the Lumber River and home to the Lumbee Tribe, Lumberton has a…

Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek – An Organizing Tool for Environmental Justice in the South

A few weeks ago, a group of activists and scholars of environmental justice met at The Franklinton Center at Bricks for the 17th annual North Carolina Environmental Justice Summit. The former slave plantation and early African American school in Whitakers, NC that has been repurposed as a training, retreat, and educational center for social justice, made for a profound setting for the opening night screening of Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek by Leah Mahan. Fifty participants gathered to watch and discuss the painful but inspiring story…

Seeking Volunteers for Coal Ash Art Installation

Working Films is partnering with the Cucalorus Film Festival to put together an art installation entitled, Smoke and Water. We need people like you to participate in creating the installation. Could you volunteer a few hours of your time to help the artist paint? No artistic ability required, just a willingness to get your hands dirty with some bright paint. We need your help this Thursday November 6th through Tuesday November 11th. You can sign up for a block of time. See the specifics on time and location below and…

Artists and Filmmakers Take on Coal Ash

This 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…

Coal Ash Stories Continues

Coal Ash Stories is a compilation of four short films that illustrate the public health concerns, policy issues, and ways communities are responding to a toxic pollution. Working Films curated the collection in response to a massive coal ash spill in the Dan River in North Carolina last February. In June, we partnered with Appalachian Voices, Earthjustice, the North Carolina Conservation Network, NC WARN, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and nineteen local organizations to bring the series of shorts across North Carolina to catalyze conversation and action. The 30-minutes…

Coal Ash Stories Expose a Toxic Threat

Stokes County is one of fourteen sites in North Carolina, and one of hundreds across the country, where toxic coal ash is being stored. What is the impact on the communities that live next to these facilities? Watch this video to find out. Host a screening of this and three other short films on coal ash. Together the four films make up Coal Ash Stories. The series explores the public health concerns, policy issues, and ways communities are responding to the toxic threat of coal ash. Request your FREE Coal Ash Stories…

Together Tennessee

Working Films is partnering with Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, Tennessee NAACP, Tennessee Education Association, Common Cause, The Coalition for the Organizational Protection of People and Equal Rights and United for a Fair Economy to launch Together Tennessee, a screening series that will bring award-winning documentaries to six cities across the state this October. The series marks the beginning of a long range collaborative campaign to advance social and economic justice in Tennessee. Screenings will be free and open to the public and will be shown in: Nashville (Citizen Koch), Memphis (The…

Reel Economy Tennessee

Last month, we gathered with a cross section of organizations from across Tennessee to make plans for using documentaries to advance social, economic and environmental justice and sustainability in the state. A day long summit held at the United Steel Workers Union Hall in Nashville, was aimed at better connecting progressive groups in Tennessee to each other, and at increasing their skills and capacity to use media, popular education, and creative actions to reach their goals. The summit included a training component on best practices for leveraging documentary film and…

Coal Ash Stories – NC Report Back

In February 2014, a storm water pipe below a massive Duke Energy coal ash impoundment failed, spilling 39,000 tons of coal ash into North Carolina’s Dan River. With the Dan River coal ash spill fresh on the minds of North Carolinians, and as controversy grew around Duke Energy’s ties to the NC Governor and state regulators, clean water had become a top concern of residents across the state. In quick response, Working Films initiated partnerships with leading state and national organizations to put together a program that could answer questions about coal…