Redford Center

Redford Center grants:redford Center grants provides development and production funds, story and networking support to filmmakers working on environmentally-focused film projects that drive awareness, engagement and action on a variety of topics. Funded by a number of major donors, 2020 marks the third, two-year cycle of the program, which launched in 2016. This cycle supports 22 film projects poised for transformative impact, tripling the total number of grantees from past cohorts. This diverse portfolio of filmmakers and projects represents necessary voices and perspectives on environmental issues, illuminating stories from people on the frontlines and covering a range of pressing issues including food security and sovereignty, climate solutions and just recovery, environmental toxins and community health, racial justice and civic participation, indigenous wisdom and rights, and endangered habitat and species protection, among other urgent issues.

Redford Center stories:redford Center stories is a youth learning and storytelling initiative providing educators and students with dynamic, integrative, no-cost tools to actively engage in the movement for environmental justice and develop their capacity to have vibrant impact as storytellers. In 2020, its second year, Redford Center stories supported educators in bringing an environmental context and content to any class, and brings educators and students into dialogue with youth activists, filmmakers, and environmental and social justice leaders to create a learning community.in partnership with apple, the Redford Center expands its focus on impact-driven storytelling and the power of narrative, understanding that every person, at every age, already is an environmentalist, storyteller, and agent of creative community and positive change. In 2020, the stories project invited young people (particularly those ages 10-14) to join a journey of learning that builds confidence for learning across any subject and puts them in the director's seat to discover and articulate their wisdom as authors of humanity's collective narrative. More than 400 films from 32 states and 13 countries were submitted during the 2020 stories challenge.rapid response: power the vote: in fall 2020, the Redford Center expanded narrative strategies to include more nimble forms of original film and media content that can be quickly activated to accelerate our mission and inspire voter turnout and more active civic engagement among the 10 million+ self-identified environmentalists who do not vote. Through a new rapid response film initiative, power the vote, the Redford Center, in collaboration with multiple partners, commissioned 12 short films from diverse storytellers to help shift public perception of what it means to be an environmentalist and what it means to be a voter. Together the short films had over 500,000 video impressions. The nature film project:the rhythms of modern-day society and technology combined have inadvertently set humanity on a path to becoming an indoor species. Most americans spend an average of 90% of their lives indoors and children play freely outdoors for an average of four to seven minutes a day. The nature film project will explore solutions to creating nature access for all through a multifaceted media project that puts sound, imagery, story and science behind a phenomenon deeply felt around the world: that humans and nature are inseparable and that connecting with the outdoors has a profoundly positive effect on human health. Humans evolved symbiotically with nature; we are predisposed to connect with and be our healthiest selves when engaging with the outdoors. This project explores how to support different film and media pieces (and associated impact campaign) to share this story and the health impacts of nature access.clean energy initiative:the Redford Center film, happening: a clean energy revolution, was released in december of 2017 on hbo and has since appeared at 27 film festivals with more than 70 festival screenings. Happening has reached more than 2 million views in the us alone and screened in all 50 states and 45 countries. There are also many organizations working in the clean power arena, and the purpose of happening's impact and outreach campaign now is to bring our individual efforts together and advance the collective success of the clean energy movement. A special 50-minute classroom edu version of the film was released in 2018 with associated curriculums for grades 6-12 and universities. The Redford Center has fielded inquiries, and provided screening licenses, support, and/or co-production to over 1,000 community and classroom and college campus screenings to date - and it continues to tour. As of 2020, happening can now be found available for rental or purchase on amazon prime video, apple tv/itunes, and vudu and continues to be available for educational licensing. Colorado river initiative (raise the river):raise the river is a unique partnership of six united states and mexico non-governmental organizations committed to restoring the Colorado river delta. The coalition has worked with policymakers, water agencies, and governmental representatives from the u.s. and mexico since 2012 to cooperatively create historic change for the Colorado river delta.the Redford Center's education and advocacy efforts on behalf of raise the river have included the award-winning Redford center-produced documentary watershed, which has been screened more than 500 times in a dozen countries, has been selected to run at more than 53 film festivals and won numerous awards. It has been picked up by educational and online distributors, including netflix, itunes, and amazon.com in 2020, raise the river continued to connect with communities in the restoration region, through a private facebook group in which ongoing informational webinars and online environmental education programs are provided.raise the river's primary goal is to bring water and life back to the Colorado river delta, and in doing so, create a model for future trans-national river restoration efforts throughout the world along with rebuilding the habitats that support local communities and wildlife.

Fiscal sponsorships:in 2020, we provided $2.6 million in funding and other filmmaker services to film and media projects through fiscal sponsorship. We see this support as inextricably linked to our commitment to invest in storytellers and amplify the number of, and audience for, environmental stories. In 2020, two of our fiscally sponsored projects, i am greta and kiss the ground were picked up by major streaming services and have already been viewed by millions around the world.