The Redford Center Expands Grants For Environmental Impact Films With 13 New Projects

The Redford Center, one of the few U.S.-based nonprofits dedicated solely to environmental impact filmmaking, has selected 13 films to receive funding, marking a significant expansion of the organization’s grants program with an increase in the number of projects and funding amount.

The international cohort of films, selected for “high impact potential and unique solutions-based themes,” will each receive $25k to support the completion of the projects and to advance their impact efforts and goals.

The Redford Center received more than 500 applications from 67 countries, marking the most expansive and globally diverse open call in the org’s history, demonstrating, it said, the overwhelming presence of impact-driven independent films and the striking gap of funding and support currently offered by the film industry.

The Center was established in direct response to a lack of support available and is a central pillar of work that the Redford Center’s late co-founder — documentary filmmaker James Redford — wanted to prioritize. Launched in 2016, the Grants Program has awarded a total of $2 million to 60 documentary film projects with funders including the Walton Family Foundation, New York Community Trust, Manitou Fund, Farvue Foundation, and GoPro for a Cause.

“With so much working against climate progress – not the least of which is time and a defeatist mindset – this new cohort of Redford Center grantees overwhelms me with hope. Their stories bring to life a very different picture than what we get from mainstream media. Collectively, they reassure us that we are in fact making environmental gains. Individually, they show us courageous leaders taking action and how communities are coming together to solve complex problems and what it looks like when young people stand up for their future. All of which will undoubtedly inspire more of the same,” said Jill Tidman, Executive Director of The Redford Center.

“I couldn’t have dreamt up a more interesting group of films and filmmakers to support, there is something for everyone in this cohort, including a shared future vision that I believe we all dream about: a world where all people and the planet can thrive,” she said.

The Center also provides professional development opportunities to grantee filmmakers with mentorship support from the Grants Advisory Board made up of environmental and film industry leaders that work closely with each team. It holds an in-person grantee summit with workshops and networking.

Recent projects include Razing Liberty Square by Oscar-nominated director Katja Esso, now streaming on PBS; Path of the Panther by Eric Bendick, a National Geographic film recently awarded an Emmy for Best Nature Documentary and now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu; Impossible Town, an award-winning documentary by Meg Griffiths and Scott Faris; and Bring Them Home, directed by Blackfeet siblings Ivan and Ivy MacDonald and Daniel Glick and narrated by Lily Gladstone.

The 13 new projects below are all feature-length films at various stages of production.

Derek’s Ark – James Damer Dawson (Director), Serena Kennedy (Producer), David Broder (Producer), Adam Wishart (Executive Producer). As climate change impacts Britain with the wettest winter ever recorded, Derek’s Ark tells the comedic story of two visions of what to do that collide in the English countryside.

Good Fire – Roni Jo Draper (Director), Marissa Lila (Co-Director), Jenn Lee Smith (Producer), Nicole Docta (Producer). Since time immemorial, Yurok people have placed fire on the land to maintain a healthy and balanced ecosystem. Over the past 100 years, settlers banned that fire, and the environment and people have suffered. Now, Yurok people are returning fire medicine to the land.

Green Gold – Sélim Benzeghia (Director and Producer), Ivonne Serna (Co-Director and Producer). A Mexican community risks everything to stop the cartels that are destroying their land and lives to make a fortune from avocados.

Green is the Fire’s Tint – Arya Rothe (Director, Producer, and Writer), Cristina Hanes (Director, Producer, Writer, and Cinematographer), Isabella Rinaldi (Director, Producer, Writer, and Sound Recordist). An indigenous woman who faces eviction from her land due to the opening of an iron mine, is determined to lead her community in fighting displacement and deforestation.

In Between Worlds – Masha Karpoukhina (Director and Producer), Michael Preston (Co-Director), Rose Wyatt (Producer), Tasha Van Zandt (Supervising Producer), Pippa Ehrlich (Executive Producer) Amidst climate chaos, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe fights to keep a sacred promise to return their ancestral Chinook salmon to California waters, just as salmon runs across the world are collapsing. Guided by Chief Caleen Sisk, they must journey to New Zealand where miraculously, the genetic descendants of their salmon survived.

In Earth We Trust – Sophie Morgan (Director and Producer), Adrienne Hall (Producer) The mistrust between faith and science is the greatest hurdle in the battle against climate change, but in 2008, one man was on the cusp of changing this world. This is a documentary about the rise and fall of the man who nearly saved the planet, and what comes next.

Infertile Ground – Reniqua Allen-Lamphere (Director and Producer), Crystal Whaley (Producer). Examines how the climate crisis is impacting Black reproductive health. Through several interconnected stories, this film explores pain, frustration and joy as Black families navigate the rocky path to parenthood as the air gets dirtier, the world warms up, and extreme weather becomes commonplace.

One Point Five (Working Title) – Alexandra Kerry (Director), Jeff Reichert (Director), Lisa Remington (Producer), Diane Becker (Producer), Melanie Miller (Producer) A cinema verité geopolitical thriller that follows key climate diplomats and activists from around the globe as they fight to save the planet and deliver climate and environmental justice.

Panda Diplomacy – Devon Blackwell (Director), Jessica Kingdon (Producer), Harry Vaughn (Producer), Sigrid Dyekjaer (Executive Producer). Peels back the layers of sentimentality surrounding panda conservation, revealing the unsettling realities that hinder its primary objective: protecting the species from human ambitions.

The Acid Rain Movie – Victoria Lean (Director and Producer), Jade Blair (Co-Producer). Follows one of the greatest environmental success stories of all time, revealing how trailblazing scientists and activists achieved the seemingly impossible: convincing politicians to reduce fossil fuel emissions.

The Invisible Valley – Elivia Shaw (Director and Producer), George Alfaro (Associate Producer) An immersive portrait of California’s Central Valley, The Invisible Valley captures every-day life in the most polluted place in America, which is also the world’s most productive agricultural region. Told through intimate observational scenes that transform into surreal poetic chapters of farm labor, mechanized harvesting, asthma clinics, ambulances and living rooms, the film shows the intimate, everyday reality of environmental change on the body and mind.

This Was The Place – Erika Cohn (Director, Producer, and Writer), Nicole Docta (Producer). A hybrid documentary weaving a cinematic tapestry of magical realism and socio-political commentary around the disappearance of the Great Salt Lake in a visually stunning, environmental thriller.

To Use a Mountain – Casey Carter (Director, Cinematographer, and Editor), Colleen Cassingham (Producer), Jonna McKone (Producer). Physics, geology and democracy collide across the expansive American interior in a series of vignettes from six sites that are candiates for a sacrificial nuclear dumping ground