EMF receives and reviews hundreds of project submissions every year. In many cases we provide advice and feedback to help project producers make better films and achieve better results in their fundraising efforts. The projects listed below are only those where we've fiscally sponsored, executive produced, provided ongoing advisory services or otherwise or other ways added significant value.

Since its founding in 2003, EMF has supported and assisted projects dealing with climate change and global warming, alternative energy, earth science, organic farming, urban farming and agricultural practices, marine fisheries, oceans and aquaculture, food safety and security, animals and wildlife, restoration ecology, ecosystem conservation and environmental preservation, social justice, indigenous people and cultures, human health and medicine, green building and growth, urban ecology and industry, and many other issues of general public interest.

Read what people are saying about EMF:  EMF TESTIMONIALS

Learn more about project successes: EMF CASE STUDIES


THE ANIMAL FUND - EMF provided support services for the ongoing work of the Animal Fund to save Pacific dolphins.

BLOG4REEL.COM - EMF provided advisory services to this new web-enabled media web site that offers bloggers an opportunity to have their content turned into a film.

BO BOUDART PRODUCTIONS - EMF provided advisory services to the production of Power Paths, a full length documentary and educational outreach project about the visionary efforts of native American tribes to create sustainable energy solutions on their lands in the Southwestern United States. EMF was a fiscal sponsor of Power Paths in 2009.

BON APPETIT MANAGEMENT COMPANY FOUNDATION - Bon Appetit is one of the largest corporate restaurateurs in the U.S. and is a part of the Compass Group, one of the largest food wholesalers in the world. Bon Appetit operates its corporate restaurateur services on organic and sustainable principals. EMF has provided donor advisory services and general consulting on the goals of their new corporate foundation.

EMF provided interactive media and short videos for the foundation's Eat Local Challenge, bringing messages about organic foods and support for sustainable local farming to over 200 Fortune 1,000 companies.

EMF also provided advisory services and showcases the Java Jolt educational project - a national educational program to raise consumer awareness about the ethical, social, cultural and environmental issues involved in the growing and purchasing of coffee.

CLIMATE REFUGEES - EMF provided project and funding consulting services for Michael Nash's Climate Refugees documentary and educational outreach project.

CONNECT MEDIA - EcoTVNews a new business startup venture for Internet distribution of environmental news content. EMF provided development consulting and technical assistance.

EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE - EMF provided editorial assistance for Chris Palmer's latest book on wildlife filmmaking, "Shooting in the Wild: An Insider's Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom" (Sierra Club Books, 2010).

EMF SHOWCASE - An Internet outreach service provided by EMF to bring cutting edge media to our members. Projects assisted include The Bio DaVersity Code and The Mouth Revolution by Free Range Studios, Call of Life, by the Species Alliance,  Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff, The Truth About GMOs, and more.

ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM OF MARIN - Marin Environmental Film Festival 2005 & 2006 - A 3 day regional film festival with community events to raise awareness about environmental issues and sustainable living. The Festival was a collaboration of local and regional educational nonprofits, NGOs and green corporations. EMF was the founding sponsor and provided ongoing consulting, fundraising and technical assistance.

ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA INITIATIVE - Environmental Media Initiatives Council - a nonprofit startup with the goal of attracting corporate marketing funds to finance educational environmental media and events. EMF provided business venture development consulting and other technical assistance.

FILMMAKERS COLLABORATIVE - How on Earth - A four part PBS television series on the restoration ecology movement in the United States. EMF provided project development consulting.

FILMMAKERS FOR CONSERVATION -  Filmmakers For Conservation is a global community of passionate people who work in, or have an association with, the global film and television industry.  Bob Silvestri served on the International Board of Advisors from 2005 through 2008.

FREE RANGE STUDIOS - Store Wars Flash media Internet digital short - A parody of Star Wars using animated vegetables to highlight the importance of organic foods and sustainable agriculture. EMF structured a distribution collaboration with Bon Appetit Management Foundation's Eat Local Challenge an event held at 200 Fortune 1,000 corporations around the U.S. to raise awareness about the importance of sustainable farming and food buying practices.

GREEN TV - Counting Sheep - TV documentary special on the conflict between preservationists for big horn sheep and preservationists for mountain lions. Featured as the first episode of KQED's Truly, CA TV series. EMF provided fundraising assistance.

GREENFIRE PRODUCTIONS - Common Ground Oceans Campaign - A grassroots, media-based, community activities campaign to raise awareness of and promote responsible public policy on the need for marine protected areas off the Oregon Coast. EMF provided fundraising consulting.

HABITAT MEDIA - EMF has provided a wide variety of services and support for this nonprofit filmmaker. Projects include:

• Saving Our Seas - A film short (24 minutes) on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture issues, around the world, this film will be included as an episode of the KRCB Natural Heroes 2006 series. EMF provided editorial and fundraising assistance, and made a grant toward its production cost.

• Farming the Seas - Feature length documentary about the environmental impacts of the fish farming industry around the world and its effects on our health and food security. Winner of multiple awards including a national Emmy. EMF provided funding and development support.

• Sustainable Fisheries & Aquaculture Teaching Pack - A nationally distributed educational lesson plan and companion video, distributed through PBS, educators and collaborative NGOs. EMF provided fundraising assistance.

• American Treasures Undersea - A proposed PBS TV documentary on the need to establish marine protected areas in U.S. waters, and around the world. This project was an outcome of Habitat Media / EMF's Ocean Education Project Initiative. EMF provided project development and fundraising consulting.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR ECOLOGY AND CULTURE - EMF provided general consulting on production and rights issues, with regard to a TV documentary being made about the groups work.

INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE FILM CENTER - Bob Silvestri joined the Board of Advisors in September 2005, and has been asked to be the keynote speaker at the 2006 International Wildlife Film Festival. The keynote addressed the pressing need to incorporate more content on important environmental issues, into mainstream entertainment programming, and discuss alternative financing methods for factual media.

At the Tarkio Retreat EMF brought together a collaborative team that included collaborating with Peter Broderick of Next Wave Films, writer director Judy Irving (The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill) and producer Phil Fairclough Grizzly Man).

EMF President, Bob Silvestri, will be making a keynote address and facilitating other presentations at the IWFF in May of 2010.

KRCB TELEVISION

• Natural Heroes - EMF was a founding sponsor and provided programming development and production consulting assistance for this national public television series on environmental issues and solutions, for the 2005 and 2006 season. Natural Heroes, produced by PBS Affiliate station KRCB and Greentreks Networks, is the first and only independently produced, national public television series dedicated to showcasing independent films with one common theme: real people making a difference for the environment. Issues covered have included clean water, alternative energy, transportation, oceans and fisheries, sustainable living, environmental protection and conservation, toxics and pollution and a variety of other topics.
  

• For Love of Place - A proposed TV documentary on the history of the saving of the Golden Gate National Seashore and Marin Headlands National Recreation Area open space. EMF provided project development consulting.

LODGE 9 PRODUCTIONS - EMF provides project development and advisory services for Caroline Harrison's international production of Green China Rising - a three part television series and feature length documentary about how the future of our planet may depend on China's succeeding to create a new green economic model.

MAYFILMS - Academy Award winning filmmaker, Marianna Yarovskaya, journeys to the most ecologically pure places on Earth: the Altai region of Russia, Yunnan province in China, and the jungles of Peru, in search of the last remaining great shamans of the world, to tell their stories and share their environmental and human health messages to the general public in a feature documentary, Shamans. EMF is providing fiscal sponsorship, project development, fundraising and distribution advisory services.

MEDIA POLICY CENTER - EMF provided fundraising assistance for the Wiland-Bell award winning PBS production of Edens: Lost and Found. Dale Bell and Harry Wiland are the only two filmmakers ever named as Ashoka Fellows.

NATUREBREAK.ORG - EMF provides fiscal sponsorship and fundraising consulting services to Vanessa Serrao's popular video / social networking web site and programs about nature and animals.

NOAA NORTHWEST HAWAIIAN ISLANDS RESERVE - The Sea is our Sanctuary Television news programming and grassroots events to raise awareness and community support for the importance of creating a permanent marine protected area in the NW Hawaiian Islands. EMF provided general project and fundraising consulting.

OCEANS 360 PRODUCTIONS - Oceans 360 - A proposed international photography and fundraising event to bring attention to the importance of oceans in our lives. EMF provided project development and fundraising consulting.

SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY - The Line Islands Expedition A proposed TV documentary on the Scripps Institutions historic research expedition to the Line Islands in the Pacific, one of the last remaining pristine reef ecosystems in the world. EMF provided project development, distribution and fundraising consulting.

SPECIALTY STUDIOS - LOBITOS CREEK RANCH 

• Tongass - EMF acted as fiscal sponsor of this feature documentary and educational outreach project about the preservation of the largest remaining temperate rain forest in North America. 

• Burning the Future - EMF assisted the producer in securing U.S. distribution through Specialty Studios for this feature documentary and educational outreach project about the devastating environmental and human health effects of coal mining in the United States. 

• So Right So Smart - EMF provided advisory services to Specialty Studios to help develop effective fundraising and outreach strategies for this feature length documentary on green / sustainable businesses.

SURFRIDER FOUNDATION - EMF worked with Surfrider Foundation to incorporate The Last Stand documentary into the Respect the Beach educational program throughout coastal California. Respect the Beach (RTB) is an award-winning coastal educational program that includes field trips, classroom lectures, handouts, video, and hands-on projects designed to explain coastal watershed processes, shoreline ecology and coastal areas stewardship to K-12 students and community groups. The Respect the Beach program is brought into classrooms by Surfrider members, who represent ocean environmentalism from the surfer's perspective, and who are role models that students can relate to. Copies of The Last Stand were made possible by a grant from the Project AWARE Foundation.

THOMAS LUCAS PRODUCTIONS - The Rising Sea - Proposed NOVA/PBS and BBC TV documentaries presenting evidence of global climate change using state of the art computer visualizations based on actual NASA and NOAA satellite data. EMF provided project development, content and editorial consulting, and financing assistance.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA CONFERENCE INITIATIVE - A proposed conference on environmental issues for national media companies. EMF provided general project development consulting.

THE WILDLIFE PORTAL.TV - EMF provides fiscal sponsorship and fundraising advisory services for theWildlifePortal.tv, a new online video channel showcasing National Geographic television host Jake Willers. The new web service provides videos and teaching tools about animals and their environment, to the general public and K-12 schools.

TURTLE RESTORATION PROJECT - The Last Journey of the Leatherback - A TV documentary on the need to protect leatherback turtles and their habitat worldwide. EMF provided distribution advisory services resulting in the film being included as an episode in the Natural Heroes national public television series for 2006.

WESTERN STATES COLLEGE FOR PERFORMING ARTS AND HUMANITIES - Great Dams of Idaho, A History of Water Rights and Wrong - a local PBS TV program on Idaho water issues. EMF provided project and fundraising consulting.

OTHER ASSISTANCE:  

• EMF advised Nancy Kates, who was working on behalf of The Tides Foundation, for her study of how to use media effectively to bring about environmental change.

• EMF advised Roundtable Media, who was working on behalf of The Ford Foundation, for their study of how to effectively finance media on controversial issues.

• EMF has reviewed and offered one-time advice and guidance to hundreds of other filmmaker applicants who have submitted materials and requested advice, support and assistance.

PROJECTS DEVELOPED AT EMF:

• Home Sweet Home - EMF developed a proposed cable television series highlighting the global impact and environmental footprint of the way we live and build our homes.

• The Ocean Education Project - EMF developed the Ocean Education Project to work collaboratively with filmmakers and NGOs, to raise public awareness and provide access to educational information about the importance of protecting marine habitats and species.
  

• The Documentary Project - EMF concluded its extensive investigation into alternative methods of financing factual programming on controversial issues, in 2008.

The Board of Advisors for the Documentary Project included: