CFF was grateful to participate in the December gathering of the New York Area Sustainability Group, hosted at the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

NYASG’s end of year event focused on the ways in which storytelling and the arts can bring people and communities together to create and inspire action, especially in the midst of change. The event included presentations and discussions with J. English Cook, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the NYC Climate Film Festival, Harry Winer, Executive Director of the Green Film School Alliance, and Emy Kane, Managing Director at Lonely Whale. The program included clips from the short films Seaweed Stories and FROM SURMA, both official selections of CFF ‘24, as well as a mini-workshop and networking opportunities for members to connect, build community, and share their own climate stories.

CFF was excited to partner with the Waterfront Alliance for a screening of the captivating short film WindShipped (dir. Jon Bowermaster, 2022, 39 min.), screened during Climate Week NYC aboard the historic 1885 Tall Ship Wavertree, a part of the South Street Seaport Museum. A panel discussion followed the screening, featuring Jon Bowermaster (director, WindShipped), Brad Vogel (Founding member, Schooner Apollonia Advisory Board), and moderated by Jesse R. Tendler (CFF Programming Director).

About the Film:

What started as one man’s quixotic dream has turned into reality. For the past five years the 65-foot Schooner Apollonia has been delivering goods up and down the Hudson River by sail—sans fossil fuels—a throwback to a time when there were 1,200 such boats on the river each day. It turns out buyers prefer the non-polluting, anti-Amazon way of making deliveries.

About the Panelists:

Jon Bowermaster, director, WindShipped

Writer, filmmaker, and adventurer, Jon Bowermaster is a six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council. One of the Society’s “Ocean Heroes,” his first assignment for National Geographic Magazine was documenting a 3,741 mile crossing of Antarctica by dogsled. Jon has written eleven books and produced/directed more than thirty documentary films. His feature documentaries include Dear President Obama, Antarctica, on the Edge, After the Spill, and Ghost Fleet. His National Geographic-sponsored Oceans 8 project took him and his teams around the world by sea kayak over the course of ten years (1999-2008), bringing back stories from the Aleutian Islands to French Polynesia, Gabon to Tasmania, and more, reporting on how the planet’s one ocean and its various coastlines are faring in today’s busy world. Jon lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. He is the President of the One Ocean Media Foundation, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Adventure Science, and Creative Affiliate of The Safina Center. For the past several years, Jon and his One Ocean Media Foundation / Oceans 8 Films team have focused on a series of short films about the environmental risks to and hopes for the Hudson River Valley, the birthplace of the American environmental movement. (hudsonriverstories.com) Jon is a Visiting Lecturer at Bard College in the Environment and Urban Studies Department; tune into his weekly radio show/podcast, “The Green Radio Hour with Jon Bowermaster,” at radiokingston.org.

Brad Vogel, Founding member, Schooner Apollonia Advisory Board

Brad Vogel is the founding member of the Schooner Apollonia advisory board. He previously served as supercargo for the vessel, leading cargo and logistics efforts for the sail freight startup from 2020 through summer 2024. A producer, attorney, poet, curator, and waterfront advocate, he previously served as a fellow with the Center for Post Carbon Logistics, captain of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, executive director of the Preservation Archive Project, and a founding member of the Blue Highways Coalition.

CFF was thrilled to partner with WINGS: Women of Discovery for a private, sneak peek screening of the documentary Antarctic Voyage by award-winning director Kevin Schreck. This film, which had not yet screened in New York, chronicles the extraordinary journey of Dr. Samantha Monier, a charismatic field biologist who leads a groundbreaking research expedition to the remote island of South Georgia.

The film highlights the extreme discoveries made by Dr. Monier and her team as they uncover the secrets of the polar region’s majestic wildlife. Through her eyes, we witness the dedication, passion, and resilience of those who are not only exploring but also working to preserve our planet’s most fragile ecosystems. The film offers a refreshingly unconventional take on the nature documentary genre, emphasizing the critical role of women in pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery. 

Following the screening, a panel Q&A featured the film's director Kevin Schreck and lead expeditionist, Dr. Samantha Monier, with moderation by WINGS Associate Board members and co-hosts Frankie deGruy and Caroline Williams. 

CFF partnered with Rethink Food and the Ceres Food Film Festival for an intimate evening focused on regenerative agriculture, including a screening of the award-winning documentary short Grass Farmers (2020, dir. Chad Galloway) and a panel discussion. The evening also featured upcycled light bites curated by Rethink Food’s culinary team and boutique Portuguese wine by NLC Wines.

A lively, engaged panel discussion included insights from: Ken Baker (Culinary Director, Rethink Food); Ben Flanner (Co-Founder and CEO, Brooklyn Grange); Neeti Jain (Strategic Partnerships Advisor, Mayor’s Office of Food Policy); and moderator Michael Robinov (Moderator, Co-Founder and CEO, Farm To People).

About the Film: Grass Farmers is a short film that explores the intricate relationship between traditional land management practices and modern environmental sustainability efforts. The narrative delves into the lives of those who meticulously care for vast expanses of grasslands, highlighting their dedication to nurturing the soil and maintaining the land’s natural health. The film showcases the challenges and rewards of such stewardship, emphasizing the critical role these practices play in preserving ecosystems and supporting biodiversity.

About the Filmmaker: Filmmaker Chad Galloway focuses on socially beneficial documentary storytelling. His work has taken him into the Canadian arctic, up the Mayan coffee mountains of Chiapas, Mexico, and deep into the backstreets of Kampala, Uganda while crafting authentic, cinematic portraits of people and their communities. His work has screened internationally, winning a number of awards including Best Documentary and Best Director.

For a special Earth Week program, CFF co-hosted a screening of Cooked: Survival by Zip Code (2020, dir. Judith Helfand) in collaboration with WE ACT for Environmental Justice at the Maysles Documentary Center. A post-screening conversation highlighted current measures combatting extreme heat in New York City, including Elijah Hutchinson (Executive Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice), Kim Knowlton (DrPH, Assistant Clinical Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University), Leslie Vasquez (Clean Air Project Organizer, South Bronx Unite), and Caleb Smith as moderator (MPA, Environmental Science and Policy, Resiliency Coordinator, WE ACT).

About the film: In the summer of 1995, Chicago experienced an unthinkable disaster, when extremely high humidity and a layer of heat-retaining pollution drove the heat index up to more than 126 degrees. Cooked: Survival by Zip Code tells the story of this tragic heatwave, the most traumatic in U.S. history, in which 739 citizens died over the course of just a single week, most of them poor, elderly, and African American.

When peeled away from the shocking headlines, the story reveals the less newsworthy but long-term crisis of pernicious poverty, economic and social isolation, and racism. Cooked is a story about life, death, and the politics of crisis in an American city that asks the question: Was this a one-time tragedy, or an appalling trend? 

In 2023, New York City was ranked as the most intense heat island in the country during the hottest year on record. But heat mortality is not inevitable. Audiences joined us for a conversation with city leadership, community advocates, and researchers working to ensure communities stay safe in a warming world.

Photos courtesy of Oliver Jaskowski and Jesse R. Tendler

As a special program organized in collaboration with Asia Society’s COAL+ICE exhibition, CFF co-presented a screening of KING COAL (2023), followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker, Elaine McMillion Sheldon. You can catch a recording of the conversation here.

About the film: A lyrical tapestry of a place and people, KING COAL meditates on the complex history and future of the coal industry, the communities it has shaped, and the myths it has created. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon reshapes the boundaries of documentary filmmaking in a spectacularly beautiful and deeply moving immersion into Central Appalachia where coal is not just a resource, but a way of life, imagining the ways a community can re-envision itself.

While deeply situated in the regions under the reign of King Coal, where McMillion Sheldon has lived and worked her entire life, the film transcends time and place, emphasizing the ways in which all are connected through an immersive mosaic of belonging, ritual, and imagination. Emerging from the long shadows of the coal mines, KING COAL untangles the pain from the beauty, and illuminates the innately human capacity for change.

Live photo courtesy of Jesse R. Tendler

In collaboration with MYCO, an Earth Day summit exploring the climate and environmental justice movement and its intersections with racial, gender, and queer liberation, CFF co-screened the short film Our Children’s River (2023, dir. Dominic Gill).

About the film: Our Children’s River follows the indigenous guards who risk their lives to protect their ancestral lands and one of earth’s most biodiverse places from the threats of extractive industries including mining, oil, and logging.

CFF’s Climate Film Club kicked off its new, semi-regular screening series with the thoughtfully comedic and incisively candid film on climate anxiety Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go (2023, dir. Sindha Agha).

A post-screening discussion highlighted insights and remarks from climate psychologists Wendy Greenspun (Clinical and "Climate" Psychologist who has served on the board and Executive Committee of Climate Psychology Alliance - North America) and Rebecca Weston (LCSW and JD, practicing clinician and Co-President of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America).

The Climate Film Club programs short climate films and engaging and educational opportunities for discussion at casual venues throughout the city. Whether you’re a climate advocate, a film enthusiast, or just curious, we invite you to join the conversation, meet new people, and share your thoughts on the film.

About the film: Plagued by overwhelming anxiety about climate change, a filmmaker decides to start seeing a climate psychologist in hopes that she can find some peace of mind at what she’s pretty sure is the end of the world. The resulting documentary is an intimate, strikingly candid self-portrait of the intersection between climate change and mental health, an emotional journey which weaves in and out of fear, helplessness, guilt, anger, and ultimately healing.

Photos courtesy of Alec Turnbull and Nina Engelbrecht

In collaboration with Climate Tech Cities, CFF co-hosted a monthly meetup as a casual and accessible way to connect with others in the climate community. Whether a seasoned climate expert or just starting to explore interest in these vital issues, guests found a welcoming and supportive community. At this event, attendees had the opportunity to network, exchange ideas, and learn more about what's happening in the world of climate x culture.

Photos by Taylor Knoche and Alec Turnbul

In partnership with NYU’s Climate Justice & Health Lab (School of Global Public Health), CFF co-hosted a screening of Where It Floods: Planting Hope in Coney Island (2023, dir. Lukas Huffman), a short documentary about community resiliency in Coney Island and the National Wildlife Federation's Resilient Schools and Communities (RiSC) program. A post-screening Q&A included insights from the film’s partners and protagonists, including: Emily Fano (co-producer, Where It Floods, National Wildlife Federation/RiSC Sr program manager), Lukas Huffman (director, Where It Floods), Alexandra Kanonik (American Littoral Society), Abby Jordan (Columbia University MA student), Pamela Pettyjohn (Coney Island Beautification Project), and Heather Sioux (RiSC program management consultant for National Wildlife Federation).

About the film: Where It Floods is a new documentary film that follows the journey of students from seven NYC middle and high schools as they learn about climate science, climate impacts, and the natural and built solutions that increase climate resiliency in Coney Island.

The RiSC is a collaboration between the National Wildlife Federation, the Coney Island Beautification Project, the American Littoral Society, New York Sea Grant, advisors at the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay, Coney Island residents, and seven NYC Department of Education middle and high schools. The mission of the program is to teach New York City middle and high school students and teachers about climate resilience, climate science, climate justice and community-led solutions.

Photos courtesy of Cole Frost

An early-access preview of New York's first Climate Film Festival! CFF showcases energizing, compelling, and diverse motion pictures and new media that encourage deeper engagement with the stakes of living in a changing world. Filmmakers, scientists, artists, and climate leaders convened over a dynamic evening of innovative, unexpected short films and emerging climate conversations.

Screenings were followed by Q&As with the filmmakers, including Annalise Lockhart (2023, dir. Mirasol), Taylor Griffith (2023, cinematographer, Humanatee), Leah Shore (2020, dir. Extremophiles), Davey Harris (2023, dir. PNGN DNCE Krill Remix), and directors Danny O’Malley and Alex Rivest and producer Adam Paul Smith (2023, CANARY). 

Photos by Jesse R. Tendler and Alec Turnbull