Heating Up Rate and Review

1. Ecopiphany
2. Heating up in Japan
3. Heating Up
4. HEAT in Sunset Park!
5. Youth View: Global Warming
6. Cold Water
7. Climate Change and Environmental Injustice: A Planetary Emergency
8. LOOK BACK, BLACK CARBON
9. Saving Our World Is Easy
10. Steeling Berkeley
11. The Trash Monster
12. Youth Climate Change
13. Explore The Hudson
14. Talking about warming
15. Harvesting, Youth

Ecopiphany

Evan W, Padraig K, Ishan P
Lexington, SC

A narrative short film about how if one person can make simple changes in his or her daily life, it will have a tremendous positive impact on their community’s environmental future.

A simple man, living his life – with no thought to the state of his environment – no thought to his actions - hears a voice…is it his own? The voice warns of his constant neglect to the environment and to his community. The voice offers suggestions, begs, pleads; but the stubborn man refuses to acknowledge the changes he alone can make. In a style reminiscent of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, or Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, the man is shown a glimpse of the dismal future of his world in global meltdown. He realizes, then, that doing nothing is just like giving up.

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Heating Up in Japan

Sean Ba, Johannah T

In this short video it compares the pollution in Japan to the pollution in America. We'd like to include visuals of Japan like a sky view from Tokyo tower or a view of Mount Fuji. The pollution here seems a lot worst than people may think. There's smog from factories, acid rain, and high CO2 levels. We would also like to include information about how Japan is trying to help stop the pollution.

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Heating Up

Juan C, Lasana H, Isabel H, Aneisha M, Emmanuel S, Alice T, Amy Z, Jason T
Boston, MA

In 2004 a shoe-string visionary youth arts organization, Artists For Humanity (AFH), built one of the most environmentally sustainable commercial buildings in the country and first LEED Platinum Certified facility in Boston, the AFH EpiCenter. The arresting design and renewable technologies of the EpiCenter have won national acclaim and 13 design/engineering excellence awards. This 23,500 square foot facility houses teen art/design studios, employing 100-130 inner-city teens year-round, and a stunning youth art gallery. The EpiCenter builds youth empowerment through the opportunity to participate in groundbreaking ideas on sustainability and the future of society. At AFH teens see the importance of thinking big and pioneering change.

Through WGBH’s Heating Up! Open Call, AFH teen video apprentices will turn their cameras on the EpiCenter’s teen employees to capture the voices of Boston’s teen artists and their experience with the environment and climate change.
Many AFH teens–mostly from underserved urban communities-are experiencing green design for the first time when they come to The EpiCenter. The Epi brings a diverse population and wide set of perspectives through its doors, leaving an indelible impression on all. Young artists are compelled to consider their relationship with the environment – whether they see nature as separate from or integrated with their urban lifestyle – and often create artwork in response to perceived dichotomy or harmony. They are inundated with news on climate change and renewable and non-renewable energy sources. Working at the EpiCenter serves as a powerful lesson for urban teens, showing them the practicality, purpose, and attainability of innovative climate change solutions.

Through video documentation, teen interviewers will ask their colleagues to consider: what the environment means to them; how climate change impacts their lives; how they contribute to or help stem environmental degradation; what they have learned from working in a green building; and how they envision the future of green development, urban planning, renewable energy, and our relationship with natural and built environments.

As mentioned, the exploration of these concerns can also be seen in art and design work created by AFH’s teen artists. In these cases, the work will be a catalyst for further discussion and will be a way to expose the conceptual side of the teens’ artwork. The sustainability and nature-centric artwork created at the EpiCenter (whether it be painting, photography, sculpture, industrial/graphic design, or video/digital work) will give a new face to the green movement, showing that not everyone concerned with the environment wears flannel and corduroys: environmentalism is happening in the midst of a very progressive, productive and innovative urban center.
A WGBH sponsored video would be part of a series of multi-media artwork created around the theme of environment, climate change, renewable energy, the EpiCenter, and the young urban experience. This project will build off our new collaboration with Now or Never Media. We have also developed a plan to create traveling and virtual exhibitions of the series entitled The EpiCenter and The Ripple Effect.

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HEAT in Sunset Park!

Joaquin S
Brooklyn, NY

New York City produces 25% of the nation’s greenhouse gases. As a home to over 8 million people in a small geographic area, it is also a place that is especially vulnerable to the affects of climate change. In particular, New York City’s waterfront communities will have to contend with rising sea levels, the threat of storm surges, and greater damage from storms in general, as they become more frequent and more severe as a result of climate change. The majority of waterfront communities in New York City are low-income communities of color. These communities face the greatest risk since they lack the resources to address such threats.

Sunset Park, Brooklyn is one of these communities. It is a low-income and working-class waterfront community with a highly diverse immigrant population. Half the residents of Sunset Park were born outside of the United States. Since the community is located on the waterfront, it will be one of the first to feel the effects of rising sea levels and flooding due to climate change. Unfortunately, residents of Sunset Park are disproportionately informed about climate change and how it could impact them and their community.

As an environmental justice organization based in Sunset Park, UPROSE is striving to educate and organize the residents of Sunset Park around this issue. UPROSE views this video production as an opportunity to engage youth in the community in an interactive project about climate change, to develop these youth as educators on the topic, and to create a tool to be used for teaching in the community. This youth-led project is a partnership between UPROSE and an art class at a local middle school, MS 88. The short video will give voice to the youth in the community as they struggle to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change in Sunset Park. We hope to interview youth and community members and gather footage of the waterfront to demonstrate the possible effects of climate change. Below is a transcription of the video submitted with this proposal and is used here to exhibit the start of an empowering project.

“Why are we going to the waterfront?
Because we want to see what carbon, carbon dioxide is doing to our, our water, our oceans, are they making it rise, because that’s what carbon dioxide is doing, it’s causing global warming and global warming is melting glaciers and causing the water to rise and we want to see how much of our waterfront has been affected by it.

What happens if the water rises?
All of Sunset Park (the Brooklyn, NY neighborhood the students live in) will flood. It’s not good.”

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Youth View: Global Warming

Will M
Cambridge, MA

My proposal for the Open Call documentary is to produce a short film about how youth at my school (Cambridge Rindge and Latin) view global warming. I want to get a youth opinion on the importance of global warming compared to other issues as well as find out what they know about global warming. I would also like to find any misconceptions that youths have about global warming and the media hype surrounding it. Also, I would like to find out if they have any interesting ideas on how to slow down or stop global warming. I would do this by interviewing students at my school about their thoughts and ideas on global warming as well as using archived footage to provide factual evidence to counter or support what they say.
It's important to get youth's opinion on this issue because they are the future and will have to live in the times that global warming will effect the planet and I want to show their thoughts on how we should deal with this problem. The movie would have three main sections: what youths know about global warming, truth and misconceptions based on what they know and solutions that youths have to global warming. I would ask them questions like: What is your view of global warming? How do you think the media portrays global warming? What should governments and companies do about global warming? What should individuals do about global warming? The main points that I want someone who has watched my movie to walk away with are the way youths view the media's portrayal of global warming, and youths direct view of global warming as a problem and their solutions to it.

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Cold Water

Harvey B, Tripp C, Andrew D, Nate L, Stephanie M, J.J. Radochia, Alistair W
Concord, MA

Every American is affected by global warming, some more directly than others, but few individuals feel the consequences more intimately and immediately than fishermen. Through a series of interviews, first-hand experiences, and scientific animations, our short documentary will provide a personal window into our local New England fishing communities. The Wheeler family has fished cod off the coast of Rhode Island for over a hundred years. At the end of fishing expeditions that last up to 36 hours at sea, Alan and his son Luke Wheeler record their catch in logbooks. It doesn’t take their well-kept records, however, to notice the depleting fish populations and warming ocean temperatures. About a hundred miles north, Ed Smith is a proud fisherman from Gloucester, Massachusetts. The town’s roots grow deep into fishing for Gloucester. Conveniently located next to Boston in some of the coldest East Coast American waters, Gloucester has grown the proud reputation of a quirky society and a prosperous fishing industry. Ed, however, is not alone in his struggles to provide for his three kids as a fisherman. He says that, in the short term, fishermen take punches primarily from cumbersome government regulations that seek to control the population of various species of fish. Above all, both Ed Smith and the Wheeler family recognize that the long-term effects of climate change are beginning to have lasting consequences on their jobs, families, and communities.
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Climate Change and Environmental Injustice: A Planetary Emergency

Emma K, Corey H
Sharon, MA

This video will address the national and international inequalities associated with global climate change, especially with respect to responsibility of the energy companies and the polluter-industrial complex in blocking meaningful reform (as shown in the film “HEAT”). The video will also highlight the vulnerability of the world’s poorest communities to global warming, and point to equitable political-economic solutions that can address the crisis. Climate change will affect everyone, but will disproportionately impact the livelihoods of poorer people in both the developing world and the United States (as seen in the case of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans). Thus, fairness and equity should be at the heart of the current debates on climate change. This video will incorporate stunning footage, music, and graphics to present the latest science around global warming, which now says that we are approaching a tipping point with potentially catastrophic results. These impacts include profound temperature increases in New England and around the world, sea level rises, increased storms, and disease. In fact, Dr. James Hansen, NASA’s leading climatologist, has determined that current levels of atmospheric CO2 are now sufficient to push us out of the Holocene, the only climatic period thus far to support human life. Under such a scenario, sea level rises of 16 feet or more will result in the projected displacement of hundreds of millions of people worldwide by the end of the century. In short, climate change is a planetary emergency requiring bold and immediate action. This video is designed to convey this sense of urgency.

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LOOK BACK, BLACK CARBON

ARAVIND K, KAMAKSHI K, NISHTHA P
NEYVELI, TAMILNADU, INDIA

It's shocking that about one million people in India die due to the ill-effects of Black Carbon; something had been unrealized by most people, because about 80 percent of the victims are from the rural sector. The life expectancy of rural people, (which is believed to be high since they live in the natural environment) has depleted to just 63.7 years in 2005 (as per the UNDP report). Black Carbon is only next to carbon-di-oxide in causing global warming. Black carbon, popularly known as soot, warms the planet by absorbing heat in the atmosphere and by reducing albedo, the ability to reflect sunlight, when deposited on snow and ice. Black carbon stays in the atmosphere for only several days to weeks, whereas CO2 has an atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years. This means that cutting down the black carbon emissions will help in reducing global warming significantly in the short-run, and thus also contributing to the long term goals of cutting down emissions.

The movie looks at how black carbon is formed, mainly in the kitchens of rural India. The stakeholders, most of the time, are not even aware that this ‘soot’ is affecting their health and lives in such a dangerous way. Combustion of wood and bio-mass is so finely woven into the lifestyle of these people, that it takes very stark examples (of deaths caused due to respiratory diseases) and very strong awareness campaigns to sensitize them about the ‘soot on their lives’. While the story explores this at the local level of the villages, it talks about how the government and the NGOs must take the responsibility to sensitize the people living in the villages about this hazard and to help them find solutions like solar cookers and improved stoves.

Indian Youth Climate Network’s aim is to show this movie to rural India, to make them understand the issue of black carbon, and field their questions and doubts about it. This movie will also help us take our message to the policy makers and the NGOs in order to find solutions to cut black carbon emissions.

The movie highlights the issue of environment pollution caused by black carbon, and at the same time seeks opinions, feedback and above all action-oriented efforts on the part of stakeholders and decision makers.

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Saving Our World Is Easy

Zanetta K, Olivia M
New York, NY

Our animation represents the ideas that we have in store for a future project. Our plan would be to choose 10 students throughout New York City, brief them on the effects their carbon footprint has in their own community and have them each make a pledge to find a concrete step to reduce their own carbon footprint in the global community. We would create their animated counterparts which would reenact the actual interviews. We will be using all recycled materials (newspapers, magazines, bottles, cans, fabric) to recreate figures and back drops. We would increase the production quality by using Adobe After-Effects and other programs (Garage Band, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, etc) to ensure the quality is great enough to be seen by the masses. This approach allows us to share real teens voices and visions in a fresh and edgy way. Our unique ambition is to create these stories with the visual flare that can engage viewers in ways that no one else can. By capturing the attention of the audience with our animation style, we can ultimately reach a broader scope of viewers and get the message of world-wide environmental change out to as many as possible. With your help, we can give everyone the insight they need to change our world for the greater.

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Steeling Berkeley

Indy G, Jazmin J
Berkeley, CA

Pacific Steel Casting Company has been located in West Berkeley for 75 years. For the past 20 years Berkeley residents have protested the foundry's practices, holding the company largely responsible for the poor air quality in the city. This film will explore the diverse perspectives of everyone involved, featuring interviews with Pacific Steel Representatives, persistent protesters, neighbors of the factory, and Bay Area Air Quality specialists. Through this documentary we are seeking to find the true cause of Berkeley's pollution, as well as what closing Pacific Steel could mean in our current economy. More importantly, what could keeping Pacific Steel mean open for the future?

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The Trash Monster

Team L.P. members: Hallie T, Gaiten H, Samantha P, Tucker H, Sean W, Fuad A, Lincoln P
Lake Providence, LA

We are a team of young, new filmmakers. We are between 15-17 years old. Some of us are white, one of us is black and one's family is originally from Yemen. We all attend the same rural high school in a high poverty area of Louisiana.

Our recent introduction to filmmaking allowed us to make a hand drawn 30 second animation. We wanted to send a message about climate change and global warming in terms which were understandable. We focused on an issue that faces us in our community. We have nowhere to recycle, nowhere at all within 60-150 miles. No paper, no plastics, no cans, nothing. We are creating a garbage monster.

Our community has various neighborhoods: black, white, immigrant, prisoner, farmers, workers and professionals. But we only have one community, one beautiful lake and one growing problem.

We don't have fancy software and our skills are not advanced. Our school prepares us for work and college without many art or graphics courses. But we still have managed to express our idea. We know something needs to be done about this problem in our community, and we believe that our story would be familiar to many, many others in small towns, particularly across the rural south.

We have put together this pitch, made up of photos of our town and our animation. We would like the opportunity to explore the economics of recycling and why these facilities do not exist in our town. We would like, at least, to pose the questions and create a discussion about the need to recycle and to reduce waste.

Our pitch is a simple plea: look at our town, listen to our voices and together let's address this problem.

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Youth Climate Change

Lauren C
Bristol, RI

I want to make this fun for kids, not so boring that they will fall asleep. I think it would be a good idea if you have some type of host, maybe a little ball of flame (symbolizing the temperatures of global warming). I think it would be a good idea. It would be a sort of newsflash video. The host would go up to people in my community and ask them what they have to say about global warming. He would ask them questions about recycling, greenhouse gasses, hybrid cars, or anything else that connects to global warming. If i had the 2000 dollars i would buy video camera, microphones, and software to make this film.

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Explore The Hudson

Amina K, Reed R, Jaime R, Philip R, Brian B, Antonio S
Poughkeepsie, NY

We all hear about climate change in the news, on the Internet, in movies, and in school, but we realized that we didn’t know how climate change was effecting our home, the Mid-Hudson Valley. We did some research and learned some startling facts about how climate change is affecting the Hudson River Valley. For example, bloom dates of many plant species are 4-8 days earlier on average than they were in the early 1970s and average rainfall is increasing while days of snow cover are decreasing. If the climate keeps changing as it has been, this change is predicted to negatively affect our area’s food production, air quality, shoreline infrastructure and development, the local winter recreation-based economy, health of residents, and native plant populations.

This year, Hudson River Valley communities such as ours are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the voyage of Henry Hudson up the Hudson River. Poughkeepsie, NY, where our organization and crew are based, is located along the Hudson River midway between New York City and Albany. Our video serves as a reminder that while we are celebrating the river and all that it means to this area, that we need to focus on how to care for it and how to give back!

For our video production we plan to document our exploration of how climate change affects the environment we live in. We will start on the river itself; the Hudson River Clearwater Sloop, Inc. has invited us onto their boat, the Clearwater, for their first educational sail of the season. We plan to interview educators and other experts from local organizations such as Scenic Hudson, the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, and the Hudson River Clearwater Sloop, Inc. We will also interview William L. Chameides, Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University who is an expert in climate change. We plan to creatively interweave interviews with these climate change experts with filmed footage of the river and our sail. Our goal for the final video is to send a message to our peers and to the world about how climate change is affecting our environment, why we should all care, and what we can do to help.

We are an experienced production crew with a history of making unique narrative, documentary and experimental videos for our television show, DROP TV. DROP TV is the award-winning youth-produced television show created by youth at Children’s Media Project in Poughkeepsie, NY. We are currently in our 6th year of production of our show. The video that we are pitching for this Open Call will add to our history of making environmentally themed short videos for the FACE (Food And Clean Environment) segment of the show. We are excited to make our video and we hope that you will choose our pitch. We appreciate your consideration.

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Talking about warming

Justin C, Anthony W
Verona, NJ

Justin and Anthony are students at a private school in Verona, NJ. We feel they have an on camera style that is funny and refreshing.

Justin wants to make a video about efficient lighting for the home. Anthony wants to do "person on the street" interviews to see if regular people are aware of global warming and what individuals can actually do to help.

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Harvesting, Youth

Angelisa C, Nicholas P
San Francisco, CA

We would like to produce a short about the San Francisco Community Gardens Program and how this city-funded program enriches the community with knowledge of where food comes from and establishes a rural environment within the urban landscape. Our project is going to focus on how the youth of the city learn to appreciate the outdoors while informing themselves of the issues concerning food production.

While businesses try to dupe the general population into buying into their multi-billion dollar food production industry, it takes a community coming together to provide alternatives to the mainstream. It takes youth who know what's good for their minds and their bodies to really get the most out of the gardening experience. We want to show how investing in the earth may be an ancient technology, but the fruits of its labor are definitely still worth picking. Considering the interesting and unique story we are pursuing, we're choosing to shoot in original documentary style, straight talking head mixed with a lot of vibrant colorful shots of the gardens and their bounty. Our main focus is going to be on the youth and what they get out of being outside working with Mother Earth; naturally we will include a lot of words and sounds of the youth. Lastly this piece is one that will help document the ongoing trend of greening cities but more importantly greening minds. It will help show that even for city kids, the desire to get out of the urban environment and really spread out roots manages to inspire youth and communities alike to make a place and name for gardens in urban areas.

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