EMF projects continue to have widespread impacts far beyond the original documentary films themselves. Below are just a few examples of those impacts and outreach that have had effects on both public policy and "on the ground" environmental issues.
Our Case Studies also clearly demonstrate how each project and the relationships it builds between producers, funders and distributors builds on those that came before to create greater impact and public outreach.
The Last Stand: Heroes at Ballona
Wetlands
The
Last Stand: Heroes at Ballona Wetlands documentary project came to EMF seeking emergency funding.
Dr. Sheila Laffey, PhD had been documenting the growing protest to stop
commercial and residential development at the Ballona Wetlands in Playa Vista, south of Los Angeles. Ballona is the largest remaining natural
wetlands ecosystem in the southern United States. A diverse
group of individuals, community groups, NGOs, fisheries and activist organizations
had formed a coalition to stop its destruction. Based on our review of rough
footage, EMF quickly raised completion and distribution / educational outreach funds
for the film.
Three
years after its completion this powerful, short documentary has been used by almost 100 community groups, activist organizations and NGOs, and had become
an integral part of the fight to save Ballona. The film screened in art house
theaters, local auditoriums, at house parties and in college and high school
classrooms. It was screened in chambers for state congressmen in and at City
Hall for Los Angeles Council Members, and won a number of national film
festival awards. And in 2005 it premiered on the PBS national series, Natural Heroes (another
EMF funded project), earning the National Telly Award for environmental films’
series for that year. Working through
EMF, Surfrider Foundation incorporated it into the Respect the Beach program
that teaches young people about the value of preserving our marine ecosystems.
Today most of
the development at Ballona has now been halted and its natural value has been
recognized, in part due to Dr. Laffey’s relentless efforts. And four years
after the film’s completion, director Steven Spielberg, whose DreamWorks
Studios had intended to be part of the Ballona development, met with Dr. Laffey
to praise her efforts and bring the issues at Ballona to his attention. The film's distribution and DVD sales to educational institutions continue to this day.
The Last
Stand remains a testimonial to how one small film can have an enormous impact.
Farming the Seas: The Marine Fisheries
Education Project
Soon after being founded, EMF received a request from noted international documentary distribution
agent, Charles Schuerhof, to help raise production completion and outreach
funding for Habitat Media’s Farming the Seas feature
documentary, a follow up to their seminal work, Empty Oceans, Empty Nets. Habitat Media, an independent nonprofit film
producer, had a PBS national airing commitment and faced an upcoming premiere
deadline.
Within weeks
EMF brought in Environmental Defense Fund as an outreach collaborator and
funder – something EDF had never done before.
EMF also brought the Bon Appétit Management Company (BAMCO) as a
co-collaborator and funder. Bon Appétit
is the “Whole Foods” of corporate restaurateurs and is one of the largest
providers of corporate food services to Fortune 500 Companies in the world.
Farming the Seas was completed on time and aired on
PBS in 2006 to high ratings and reached 85% of PBS viewers in all major
markets. Its ensuing educational
outreach included screenings and DVD sales to high schools, colleges and
universities, NGOs, local and national government agencies, commercial
fisheries stakeholders and others, supported by a broad-based collaborative effort.
The
program inspired over 150,000 people to visit the Habitat Media and PBS Marine Fisheries Series web
sites. Site visitors responded to questionnaires to help us gauge the impact of
the show. Nearly all respondents
indicated that they were inspired to ask for seafood products produced by
sustainable fisheries. The Monterey Bay
Aquarium Seafood Watch website showed a remarkable spike after the cluster of
PBS air dates.
Over 20
newspapers made references to Farming the
Seas in articles and television highlights including the Seattle Times, San
Francisco Chronicle, Cape Cod Times, Anchorage Daily News, and Marin
Independent Journal. Articles on the
film appeared in both National Fisherman and Chow Magazine. National Public
Radio’s live evening news show,
On Point, devoted an hour to the film
and aquaculture issues during a panel discussion entitled Farming the Seas: the Future of Seafood, featuring Steve Cowan, Carl Safina (Blue
Ocean Institute), Jeremy Brown (Pacific NW fisherman) and Rich Langan (offshore
aquaculturist). Radio spots were placed on NPR stations during peak commute
hours around the country.
A widely-reaching grassroots email, newsletter, and website banner outreach effort
was executed with the support of 75 natural ally organizations, including
Seaweb, The Ocean Project, Environmental Defense Fund, the Blue Ocean
Institute, the California Academy of Sciences, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the
Coral Reef Alliance and many other organizations. Many of these organizations used
Farming the Seas as an educational tool in their own outreach. Chef’s
Collaborative screened the short version at dinner events. The South Carolina Aquarium arranged special
educational events anchored by the PBS broadcast featuring a panel discussion
with Aquarium staff and the local fishing community. And the program screened to full houses at a number of film festivals around the country.
EMF continued its involvement and raised funds to have the film
re-purposed into a 14 minute educational version with a companion curriculum and
web-enabled DVD teaching tools to create the Marine
Fisheries Series - Educational Teaching Pack.
This version was distributed to over 400 partners of The Ocean
Project, an international network of aquariums, zoos, museums and
conservation organizations. According to the American Zoo and Aquarium
Association, zoos and aquaria in the U.S. alone receive 130 million
visitors every year.
EMF also helped fund a 25-minute version of the film, Save our Oceans, (2006), that screened on
the national PBS series, Natural Heroes,
winning the National Telly Award and Emmy for the series in that year. This short film
was also screened throughout the country in a joint effort
between Monterey Bay Aquarium and BAMCO. The Save Seafood project promoted
sustainably-produced seafood to an
estimated 25,000 employees, regional seafood purveyors and consumers.
Farming
the Seas continues
to create positive impacts far beyond the initial PBS broadcasts through its
use as a resource tool by a wide array of governmental, educational, and
industry organizations. Government
organizations including NOAA Fisheries and the US Coast Guard Scientists along
with educators from around the world have ordered copies of the film for
outreach and education. Over 100
universities around the country, including MIT and Stanford, have used Farming
the Seas as a resource tool along with industry groups including seafood
distributors, restaurants, and aquaculture farms. The film and its outreach
collaborators were an integral part of the process of raising public awareness
that led to the passage of landmark legislation to create marine fisheries reserves off the coast of California.
Farming the Seas has won the CINE Golden Eagle
Award for Excellence (2004) in the Environment and Natural Science category, Best Independent and
Best Marine Conservation Message at the International Wildlife Film Festival in
(2005), and the Grand Prize in Public Affairs category of the
Ekotopfilm International Festival of Professional Films in
(2004). The program was also nominated for an Emmy Award in the Best
Documentary category (2005) and has been selected for the United Nations
Association Film Festival, San Francisco Ocean Film Festival, Portland
International Environmental Film Festival, Marin Environmental Film Festival,
and Washington D.C. Environmental Film Festival.
Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation
(BAMCO Foundation)
EMF
introduced BAMCO to media as a tool to raise public awareness and effect
consumer buying habits through its experience with the Farming the Seas project. BAMCO also funded a short educational version of Farming the Seas called Save our Oceans, which aired on the Natural Heroes PBS series the following year.
Inspired by this, BAMCO approached EMF to assist in creating the first “Eat Local Challenge.” With media created by Free Range Studios and
provided by EMF, the challenge was held in 100 corporate cafeterias of Fortune
100 companies on a single day. Chefs competed to create the most original menus
consisting of the best local, organic produce, meats, poultry and seafood that had
to come from within 100 miles of their location. The Challenge was such a success in raising
consciousness about corporate buying habits that it has been repeated every
year since.
Subsequently, BAMCO brought in EMF to help name and develop a mission for their
newly created corporate foundation.
Since that time, BAMCO has continued to work with EMF and create media
to raise public awareness about the importance of organic food and fair trade
coffee buying practices.
KRCB’s Natural Heroes – National PBS
Series
PBS
affiliate station KRCB and Greentreks Networks approached EMF with a novel
concept for a new national PBS series about environmental issues called Natural Heroes. The series
began in 2004 with the mission to celebrate the independent filmmakers who are
turning their lens on our natural world, and to showcase inspiring
stories of people who are making positive differences for our environment.
Working
with a variety of individual donors and foundations, EMF was a founding funder
for the show for the first two years.
Natural Heroes has been honored with five Emmy Awards, three national
Telly Awards and the Insight Award. The first four seasons of Natural Heroes
have aired on Public Television stations all across the United States, Puerto
Rico, and into Canada, reaching an estimated 90 million viewers and has served
as a springboard for the careers of many independent documentary producers. The
series exemplifies the message that one person really can make a difference.
South Central Farm: Oasis in a Concrete Desert
The South
Central Farm documentary film and educational outreach project covers
the controversy over the South Central Farm in Los Angeles, California. Created by poor Latino families on land given to them (in perpetuity)
following the riots of the early 1970s, the
farm became the largest, most productive (per square foot) and most bio-diverse
urban farm in the country. It fed a
community of 350 families in need, as well the many visitors to its monthly
Tiangus or farmer’s market. Crime rates dropped. Welfare rolls dropped. School
attendance increased. It sheltered birds and other wildlife in the shade of its
200 walnut and fruit trees, providing a cool oasis in the concrete desert.
Decades
later the original land owner sued the City of Los Angeles and cut a "back room" settlement deal to buy back the land (for $5 million dollars: the same amount he'd sold it to the City for decades earlier). When the community begged for a chance to stay, they were told they
could purchase the land if they came up with $16 million in a month. Miraculously,
they did with the help of the Annenberg Foundation. But the owner now said he
wanted $20 million. And soon after, he got
the riot
police to show up unannounced and sent in his bulldozers and demolished the
entire farm.
The
filmmaker approached EMF with rough footage and in need of emergency funds to
continue to film this entire sequence of events. EMF quickly provided a stop gap grant and
brought in other funders to help complete the project. The film went on to
become a rallying message to engage community and government activists and
others to focus attention on this injustice.
South
Central Farm premiered on the Natural Heroes PBS series the following year. It
has been supported and promoted by a variety of individuals, including Oscar
winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler, farm leaders Tezo and Rufina Juarez, celebrities
such as Daryl Hannah, Joan Baez, Julia Butterfly Hill, John Quigley, Martin
Sheen, Tom Morello and Willie Nelson, some of whom donated film footage and all of whom helped bring international attention to
the issue. The film has been screened at
countless community gatherings and used by urban farming advocates to teach the
importance and value of community farming in urban settings. Other supporters have included human rights
activist Don White, author Marion Nestle (Politics
of Food), and Green Party leaders Mike Feinstein and Linda Piera-Avila on the
broader issues of food security, bio-regional planning and global trade.
Perhaps
the greatest irony of this small film’s success is that the filmmaker has
become a conduit for negotiations between community leaders and the
original landowner, which continue to this day. Years after the eviction, in a collapsed real estate market, the land sits unused.
TO "PROJECTS ASSISTED"