August 8, 2025 • 43 mins
In this episode, we sit down with Alec, co-founder of the New York Climate Film Festival, to explore how cinema is being used to spark conversations around climate change. From building a community of diverse storytellers to rethinking what climate narratives can look like, Alec shares the journey of starting a film festival focused on one of the most urgent issues of our time. Whether you're a filmmaker, climate advocate, or simply a lover of good stories, this episode uncovers the creative intersections where art meets environmental action.📝 Show Notes:In this episode, we discuss:
- 🎬 The origin story of the New York Climate Film Festival
- 🌍 Why climate is as much a cultural issue as a scientific one
- 🧠 How experimental and narrative formats push climate storytelling forward
- 🤝 Collaborations between artists, scientists, and curators
- 🎥 What Alec looks for in a festival film submission
- 🔊 The underrated power of good sound in indie filmmaking
- 🐝 Highlighting “Keeper,” a touching short film about beekeeping and family in the Bronx
- 📈 Hopes for the future of media, festivals, and climate narratives
- One With the Whale – a coming-of-age climate story set in the Aleutian Islands
- Keeper by Hannah Rafkin – a short film about a father-daughter beekeeping duo
- Climate storytelling resources:
- Good Energy Playbook
- Climate Spring (UK)
- Earth Angel (sustainable production)
- Albert (BAFTA’s sustainability program)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more
amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
In today's episode, we dive into a powerful conversation with
Alec Turnbull, co founder of the New York Climate Film Festival,
a groundbreaking event that's changing how we feel and tell
and experience climate stories. From the origins of the festival
during the pandemic to creating films that blend activism, art
(00:35):
and emotion, Alex shares what it takes to build a
community of storytellers focused on our planet's most urgent challenges.
If you've ever wondered how film can shift perspectives, build hope,
or disrupt the status quo, this episode is for you. Alec,
how are you doing today?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Doing very well? Great to be chatting with you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Good good. I'm glad you're here and I'm glad we're
able to to talk and discuss your amazing festival. I
haven't spoke to anybody who's been a part of a
climate film festival yet, so it's a pleasure to speak
to it. Really really is.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, it's been a real, i would say, sort of
journey into this climate cinema space, and there are more
of us, and it's great to be creating it a
place to bring people together around it.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Right from the get go. How do you see your
role as someone at the intersection with the climate conversation?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I think our role exists both within the film industry
at large and kind of where does climate fit into
film and cinema, and then the broader conversation around climate
of where does film, cinema, mass media fit into how
we're dealing with this global crisis. So I'll start actually
(01:53):
with the second one, which is how how do we
deal with climate change and why? And what can film
figures do about it, if anything at all? And you know,
I think one thing that we've really seen, especially in
the last several years, is just how cultural an issue
climate is and has become, right, whether that's how you
(02:13):
live your life and sort of cultural habits and ways
of being, or certainly kind of from an American perspective,
how politicized it has been on the national stage. So
when we think about culture and we think about these
cultural issues, it's incredibly important to have that conversation where
it's happening right, not just in policy rooms, but also
(02:35):
to be able to see it in the every day right,
to be able to talk with your co workers about
something the TV show that you saw last night, and
have those shared touch points where these moments kind of
are made real and are also made visible. It's such
a slow process. It's such a I think, scientific thing
that bringing it outside of the papers, outside of the
(02:58):
academy and into either your living room or your cinema
or your conversations with friends and family really does have
this transformative effect about how we think about it at large.
And then just sort of within the industry, you know,
a film festival is sort of a unique and odd
(03:19):
thing to be starting almost in twenty twenty five. I
guess we started a couple of years ago, but still
it is a real way, I think, to bring together
filmmakers who are interested in the subject in person, and
that there is still a lot of power in that,
and then to bring audiences together, and I think that
once again there is a moment and power to kind
(03:41):
of being in a theater looking at this frinkling, flickering
screen with everyone around you and being able to have
that shared experience.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
What drew you to be a part of stories that
touch on environmental or social change.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So the film festival really emerged out of the collaboration
between myself my co founder English We are married, which
is how this kicked off. I made my own transition
into climate work in twenty twenty during the pandemic. My
background was in tech and software, and my journey into
(04:17):
climate had started a little bit before the pandemic, but
it was never something I really felt called to. I
never really knew how I fit in or that I
was the right one to be working on it. But
in twenty nineteen it seemed like there was just a
chain of sort of climate catastrophes, from orange Sky's in
San Francisco to wildfires in Australia, things that now seemed
(04:39):
to happen almost every year. But that was the first
year that they, at least for me, kind of broke through.
Is you know, maybe this is not something that I'm
called to work on or that I, you know, have
the direct skill sets for. Maybe it's something that everyone
should be working on, and it's something that maybe I
should try and figure out how I can be a
part of. And so under Lockdown, I personally was able
(05:02):
to just start learning I think into Google, you know,
what can you do about climate hundred? What can I?
And I met a really incredible network of other people
sort of on that same path and same journey. My
co founder English, she's her first name, family name. She
goes it's it's English, like the language. He is an
(05:24):
art historian and film curator. And her background is really
in museums. And at the time that I was sort
of on my own professional journey, she was actually working
in a major museum on fellowship here in New York
and really looking at, you know, just their collections and
looking at what was kind of emerging, and this climate
(05:45):
conversation started to come up, and she sort of saw
me going through this and started to bring it as
a conversation that she hadn't really been having and thinking
about in that cultural space to the museum, and it
wasn't and she's you know, asking kind of what they're doing,
but and it wasn't really being explored on a curatorial
level or on a practical level kind of on site
(06:05):
and buildings, and it just got us thinking, you know,
as she was wrapping up for PhD. She's now a
doctor of Art history and focused on cinema and cinema
and architecture got us thinking, you know what, we should
see what's out there? Is there a climate film festival
in New York? Who's doing the sword, who's pulling it together?
What climate films are there? And we started looking and
(06:28):
we found two things. The first was, to our utter surprise,
there didn't seem to be a climate film festival in
New York City as much as we looked for it.
There were sort of adjacent things, but we felt like
there was a difference between climate as a concept and
some of the more traditional environmental film festivals. There's a
lot of overlap. I can definitely talk more about that,
(06:50):
but I think that climate does sort of stand distinct
is something that really brings in that human element as
well as the greater world and kind of nature and
environmental not just our effect on nature, but also our
effect on nature, and it's our effect on ourselves. And
the other thing we found was there are just a
lot of climate movies out there. There's a lot of
climate cinema in ways that we didn't expect. And so
(07:14):
with those two things, we sort of were like, shouldn't
it started the joke and then you know, it sort
of snowballed and I grew out of control and de
Ac should chick it.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So what type of challenges did you go through when
you decided to move yourself away from tech into the
climate film festival space and how do you overcome them?
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I will say I haven't fully moved out of tech.
I still work professionally in climate tech. It's still something
that I do as a day job and and sort
of professionally. I think it's it's hard to make film
festivals work financially. Yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
The I would say.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
The challenges of moving kind of from tech and museums
into film festivals, I haven't been so much in terms
of of kind of this skill or lack of knowledge.
We've actually found that people have been incredibly supportive. There's
a lot to learn, and you know, I think we
both approach this with a lot of humility in terms
(08:12):
of not, you know, we're starting a film festival for
the first time, a little bit from scratch. We really
turned to an incredible advisory board and a number of
people who have done this before and kind of turned
to them for how do you do this? Looking for advice,
looking for ways to work and work with filmmakers. I
(08:34):
think we found that the filmmakers in general have been
really hungry as well for a place to show these
films and bring them together and to have this conversation
in a way that is called out as climate, you know,
not always, and I think a lot of filmmakers see
their works not as being reduced to climate, but having
that as an important element that they are not able
always to shine a light on. And we're able to
(08:56):
kind of bring out that element for this moment. The
challenges that we've run in to, I would say it's just,
you know, festivals are just a lot of work, a
lot more. I think if we'd known how much work
it was going to be going into it, I'm not
sure that we could have would have taken up the mantle.
But once you're in it, it's also just kind of
addictively rewarding to keep meeting people and putting these things on.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
So wow, Yeah, how many submissions do you usually get?
Because I sent some of my projects over the years,
I've sent via film Freeway, And I think one of
the big differences now is with film Freeway, which I
do love and enjoy, you're able to send films to
film festivals such ease. I get to feed in festival.
(09:43):
People who run festivals and own film festivals must be
getting an crazy amount of film sense to them, whereas before,
maybe even as little as ten twelve years ago, people
were burning DVDs, putting them in the post, telling them
to the film festivals, and that takes a different type
(10:03):
of dedication and cost every way.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I love Film Freeway. It's also again it's sort of
a newer festival, the only thing that we've ever known.
It makes it very easy, and I think we benefit
a little bit from being a niche festival. There's a
little bit of advertising work we have to do to
bring people in sometimes where we really do want to
pick everything that might have a climate as a team,
and again maybe they don't see it as suck and
really invite them in. For our first year, our first
(10:30):
official year was last year. We had sort of a
soft launch year zero. In twenty twenty three for our
first official year, we had three hundred fifty submissions, and
then this year we had four hundred and fifty, so
you know, quite an increase. And our approach has been
really once again one of collaboration and really we're essentially
(10:53):
an all volunteer team and we have an incredible team
of volunteer screeners, so we had this year we had
forty greeners who reviewed every film. So I guess are
approach is to systematize it a little bit. So we
have we've got a rubric across a few different category
sort of genre, category, climate and relevance score overall film quality,
(11:17):
and we run all of our screeners through sort of
this onboarding process. If here's the rubric, here's how to
think about and evaluate films. Every film gets seen by
two screeners, and then the top scoring films go to
our programming team. So we have programmers dedicated in each
sort of subcategory, so documentary features as a programmer, documentary shorts, narrative, episodics,
(11:41):
et cetera. And so within those categories, the programming team
kind of evaluates and assesses and pulls together their top
choices based off of this, using the score sort of
as a cut off and kind of a first past filter.
But then we really assemble sort of what that program is.
And then English as artistic director or sits down with
(12:01):
the final final kind of pitches from all the different
programmers and assembles what that program will be really again
kind of with an eye not just towards you know,
making sure we have everything in time, but also towards
what is you know, what's the shape, what are the
topics we cover as a climate film festival, what's the
shape of it? And also what's the emotional valance and residence? Right,
(12:24):
I think it's you know, there's a danger or maybe
even an expectation that a climate film festival will just
be think bummer, you know, just want one down or
after another. And there's certainly some of that, right. You know,
climate is not not the curious of subjects at large,
and I think it's important to have films that do
(12:46):
sit with that grief and do highlight these issues in
ways that hackle the reality. But it's also important and
I think part of our mission to take a wide
angle lens on this experience. Right, this is something that's
happening to everyone. It's existential, and there's so much art
(13:07):
to be made about it, whether it's documentary, whether it's scripted,
whether it's experimental, and there's so many feelings to be
had about it, including feelings of both including showcasing solutions
and feelings of anxiety and confusion, and you know, and brilliant,
whatever they may be, and so making sure that those
also exist to whatever extent we have can make those
(13:30):
happen on screen, and making sure that we've broken those.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
In So what exact choices do you make behind the
camera to shape how viewers perceive climate related themes.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
So there are a number of amazing groups that are
really working on how to do sustainable storytelling. So within
the industry, I think we actually use in front of
the camera and behind the camera, at least we do internally.
I'm not sure if it's industry standard, but really within
the industry, thinking about how it manifests on screen right
(14:01):
in the actual film itself. And then also sustainability on set,
which can be incredibly important as well. And if you're
doing any sort of production, you know obviously you have waste,
and I think people tend to focus on these sort
of smaller things that maybe seem more achievable, like, oh,
we can reduce our plastic usage, but really what matters
is not using diesel generators right and being thoughtful about
(14:26):
flying and kind of where your sets are. And so
there's incredible, incredible people who are working on sustainable production
at the studio level and also enabling that. Earth Angel
as a partner of ours, are doing our sustainability for
the fetsful itself. They work with a Green Shot in
Europe and they help sets essentially kind of go green
(14:47):
in various ways, so bringing batteries on set for lighting
that also have additional kind of creative benefits you can
do a lot when you don't have this like noisy
stinky generator, right, and then other ways also to to
sort of be more thoughtful about waste and other elements
of sustainability on set. So there's this whole world of
(15:07):
people who are doing incredible work on that. At the
studio level, I think Netflix has been doing a really
good job kind of behind the scenes. NBC Universals Greener
Light Program really puts this forward, and again there's there
are a lot of people who really like kind of
pushing pushing that on the production side. In the UK,
I believe Baptis Albert is really kind of the leaving
(15:29):
the charge in terms of even just tracking like how
do you measure the impact of it on set in
front of the camera. You also have amazing groups, so
Climate Spring in the UK has really been working to
push forward what climate storytelling is and can be, and
also not just in a documentary way, but in a
storytelling way. So providing grants and workshops for filmmakers to
(15:52):
think through what does climate change rom com blok light
or a horror film right and string lean into these
more traditional and often more appealing genres and thinking about
what does it mean to pull climate themes into it
and into those and to not just ignore it as
something that is out there. So I will do at
(16:16):
least one final shout up, maybe there will be more
to Good Energy as another group that has also been
doing a lot of work and thinking about this and
have the Good Energy Playbook. And part of the reason
I even bring them up now is one of their
big theses is that not having climate in your on
screen world is creating a work of fiction. Right, This
(16:38):
is something that is happening, and so if you want
to create something that exists in the real world, you
need to acknowledge it in some way, and you don't
necessarily need to make it the centerpiece. But if you
don't and you don't think about it again, depending on
your world, depending on your film, you know you're not
really representing the world as it is. You are in
(16:58):
fact doing science fiction and then also just looking for opportunities. Right,
you know, again, this is something that I think we're
all scared to talk about, right, it seems overwhelming And
at the same time, isn't that just like a great
great fodder for art, I would say, And so trying
to make it for me personally, and I think some
of the conversations we want to have at the film
(17:20):
festival just like how can we make this, you know,
something that like how can we start to get past
that taboo or the sense that you are always falling
into these tropes or these genres. Right, it has to
be a disaster movie, or it has to be you know,
the small environmental activists against the big company and those
those can be like really great films, It can be
really great tropes. But also how do you move beyond
(17:41):
and think about things that are weird and creative and
get you, as an artist excited to be making that film.
So that was a lot. But anyways, suffice to say,
her resources out there and people thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
So can you give us an example of a film
that really resonated of you, that told the story of
climate change very well? And can you give us an
example of a film that didn't have anything to do
with climate change and you felt it was unrealistic.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I think I'm going to jump to one of the
films from our festival last year that resonated I think
very well with a lot of viewers, which is one
with the Whale and set in you see might sorry, yeah,
oh great, yeah, amazing. So set in a very traditional,
(18:30):
i would say, like sort of climate change setting, which
is the Arctic, following a coming of age story of
a young boy and his sister in the Aleutian Islands
of Alaska, very remote and you know, dealing with hardship
and food insecurity exacerbated by climate change, and really transporting
(18:53):
the viewer to this world that on one hand you
never really have access to, right and it feels very
foreign and very far away, and on the other hand
is very much a world of you know, modern people
living out their lives with social media, growing up are
you know, going to school, and also living through indigenous
(19:17):
lifeways like whaling, which is a big touch point in
the film. So for me, I found it to be
this incredible and very nuanced view of not just a
coming of age story and a community in a way
that transports you and also makes you feel a kin
and sort of understanding, but also that takes a nuanced
(19:38):
approach to some of the challenges of even the environmental
movement itself in terms of trying to balance working with
indigenous life ways, working with conservation, with different priorities, which
is something that as we go forward, I think as
a movement are always trying to struggle with. Then again,
are kind of these these real moments for our incinema,
(20:00):
these moments you always want to have, these conflict moments,
and these are almost unexpected things where you have many
parties that have this they're certainly their own personal moral
high ground that start to conflict and where the viewer
you can kind of understand where everyone's coming from, and
you just have these these moments of conflict and uh,
you know, tragedy and joy as well. So that I
(20:23):
think was a great film. I don't I wouldn't necessarily
call out and I am not going to call out
any movies for not necessarily dealing dealing with it well,
because I know it's you know, it's hard to make
a movie whever you know, who whoever is doing it.
I would say that the thing that I see as
(20:46):
less effective and also studies have shown to be less
effective and are movies that do end up pulling into
some of these tropes right of again trying to lean
into genre conventions around oftentimes again important stories to be
told individual activists who are fighting against the kind of
(21:07):
whether it's a mining company or a big fossil fuel company.
But you always need to find a way to make
those stories fresh because I think as a viewer you've
seen them over and over again and so that you
end up letting it wash over you. And it can
be a great film. You can learn about this place,
you can learn about this light, but it can be
(21:28):
hard to then feel that desire to take action because
you've also seen this movie before, right, and it's like, oh,
I've seen that film before. Is not necessarily something that
then leads someone to start to embrace their own agency
in this in this wider area.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
So do you think experimental formats help push the boundaries
of climate storytelling?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
I love it, and I think this is part of
our DNA as a festival, is really coming out of
my co founders again kind of background in the art
world and with museum. Yes, I think that this dovetails
really well with what we were just talking about. This
idea of how can you think about pushing or not
(22:09):
just content but also form and climate is something that
in some ways is great to have on screen, right.
It's this medium of time, and climate change is something
where a normal human time frame it's really hard to
(22:31):
see happening, and with film we can slow down, we
can speed up. It is like, ultimately that it is
a medium of time, and so by being able to
lean into that and link to that creatively, I think
that you can make visible these elements of climate, sometimes
literally right, sometimes it's receding glaciers, but sometimes much more
(22:55):
either spiritually or existentially right, philosophically, these ideas that you
can't really wrap your head around. I think I'm absolutely
on the name of the film. But Devrastratman had a
really wonderful sort of more experimental film around geology and
rocks and time that really resonated with me as something
(23:15):
where I never really thought about geology before seeing the film.
And you know the ways that you know rocks almost
you know they do change. I think of them as
these static, ever present things, right, and it's like, no,
they move, they change, They evolve, they you know, and
they metamorphose and so being able to again kind of
(23:37):
which the ways that we think that we see is
is so cool and that again I think it's come out.
I have a lot of anxiety around climate change. Is
something that helps at least at least me kind of
think through and process and be inspired.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And what kinds of collaborations like that was between curators,
climate experts and artists. Do you think of a cent
in making impactful climate films?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I'm pausing because we are a very collaboration heavy festival
and very collaboration forward, so I just want to say
all collaborations and I think there is some truth to that.
There are a lot of people working on this and
I think that this is sort of what we've seen,
and there are a lot of people who want to
talk about it and want to be working on something
(24:25):
related to climate, whether again it's direct or indirect, And
we don't always feel that way. Oftentimes, I think it's
easy to feel isolated in the work that you're doing
or to feel siloed. And I think that there are
a lot of silos that end up happening both in
the film industry and then within kind of the climate
and culture industry at large, just because there's so much
(24:46):
right and oftentimes because we work in these different industries
where the art world is different from the film world,
is different from theater, it's different from people who are
doing dance. In New York. There's a group that does
climate kind of Broadway, and again, you know a lot
of the similar sorts of things of how do you
make theatrical sets more sustainable and reduce waste, and then
(25:08):
also how do you do it on stage? And so
we have all of these shared moments, all of these
shared things similar again in the art world around both
the actual like physical waste and impact and energy of
art itself and then also the medium right and kind
of what you're doing with it, and so bridging I
(25:31):
think that bridging these gaps and collaborating cross sector is
inspiring and does ultimately allow us to kind of break
through these again kind of habits of thinking where we
end up in the same old stories and we need
nu ones.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Okay, so when you need new ones, I mean the
Climate Film Festival believes in building a diverse community of storytellers.
How do you incorporate and uplift voices in your filmmaking,
So in your film.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Festival, yeah, absolutely, I would say one, we've been just
so lucky, I think, just by virtue of being a
climate Film festival to really already see a lot more
diverse voices that are making these films and certainly participants
in them, and we have filmmakers from all over the world.
(26:24):
I think sixty countries, incredible sort of gender representation. I've
seen about slightly over fifty percent own directed films where
we submitted to CFF. There's still sort of these historic
gaps and inequalities in terms of who's making films and
who's able to participate. I think that there are a
(26:45):
number of documentary filmmakers out there, and we don't just
highly documentary, but they jump to mind for this who
have started working more directly and a more creative documentary
practice of working directly with the participants in the documentary
to not just be you know, the subjects of the documentary,
but also the makers of it right to also pick
(27:05):
up the camera and use it and to be co
creators of those documentaries. We always like to highlight those
films as well. What we do as the festival is
thankfully again you know, to a large extent. We're really
working with great films, and I think a lot of
films coming from unique voices are the ones that stand out,
and so we're able to program and create a platform
(27:28):
for them to be on screen and together in New York.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
And as you said, the film festivals in New York. Now,
New York is like a mecro of indie film. It's
a huge, big city. Everybody knows about New York. It's
a Juggernau. How do you feel the festival would be
if it was in a smaller city or in a
different type of environment, And how does it affect what
happens on the festival day, that in the atmosphere, and
(27:55):
how it's received.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
As with all things, it is a double edged sword
being in New York right. As you mentioned, one of
the great benefits to being in New York is that
we are able to claim a little bit of its
cultural cachet. Right There are so many people here, it
is a hub for cinema, for arts, and being the
(28:16):
New York Climate Film Festival, I think does give us
this ability. And we also take place during Climate Weekend YC,
which is at the same time as the UN General
Assembly right, it's this moment where people really it's not
just New York, but people truly are coming to the
city all over the world, and so it elevates the
number of people who were able to bring the profile
(28:38):
of people who were able to bring in we're actually
working on climate as well. However, there are challenges as
well to being in the city. Obviously, there's a lot
of competition with other amazing festivals and films and cultural
events and other things going on, so you always need
(28:58):
to find your own way to stand the noise. And
then also I think it changes the nature of the
festival as a place for community, and this is something
that we really try and create and focus on at
the festival itself. When you go to a smaller festival
or a smaller place, right, it can be a small festival,
or it could be a major festival like sun Dance,
(29:19):
but you're in Park City. Everyone's there for that event. Right.
You can go into any restaurant, you can walk down
the street and then you'll run into filmmakers, You'll run
into friends, you'll run into other people who are they're
having that shared experience. And in New York you just
can't do that. It's impossible, and so what we try
and do is we really try for the festival to
do as much as we can to create a hub,
(29:40):
to create that place where people can gather, and so
we cheat it to we have one really concentrated weekend.
We have a few kind of events throughout the week.
We're ating an extra sort of summit day this year.
But I think for us it's important can you create
a physical place where everyone can come. And it's also
not just movies. We also make sure that we have lunches,
(30:04):
we have coffee opportunities for filmmakers to meet not just
other filmmakers, but also to meet people who are working
on climate problems themselves as scientists or academics, and also programming. Again,
kind of all on site is the greatest excess that
we can.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Ah, that's amazing. So what type of films about climate
change would you like to see that haven't been made
in New York?
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, we would love to see. I mean, we have
amazing documentaries and we also have an amazing narrative lineup,
but I think we would really love to see more
narrative films, more scripted films, features shorts. Once again, I
think there's so much stared to mind for creative work
and opportunity, and we love to see more of it.
(30:49):
I think it's also how you start to make climate
more mainstream as well.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
And how do you envision the role of media involving
in the next five to ten years when it comes
to environmental storytelling.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
The next five to ten years is the big question.
I think we're definitely part of. You know, we're at
this moment in the industry where where so much is
changing and it's really hard. I think it's also what
we see. It's really hard up there, especially for documentary
filmmakers right now in the market, and you see a
lot of people working on kind of creative methods of distribution.
(31:20):
My hope and my my thoughts at the where we
live is that the Climate Film Festival and kind of
climate films almost have a leg up on some other
ones because they think a lot of the distribution model
really is going to be a lot more kin to
impact filmmaking and impact producing going forward. For smaller and
(31:41):
more indie films right where you do look a lot
more to how can you do creative collaborations around financing,
but also how can you do create collaborations around distribution,
working with smaller groups, working with and we do year
round events too, right where we partner with local climate
groups and bring the film, or wener with local arts
groups and we bring the climate. But being able to
(32:03):
create these kind of anchor screenings with other people are
also sort of passionate about the space is a way
to I think, is something that you see these impact
filmmakers and climate filmmakers already doing, and I think it's
probably a more robust way as we stare down a
uncertain future in terms of the distribution and streaming mandscape,
(32:29):
in terms of in terms of media at large. I
think again, you know, we hope that this is a
way of not just mainstreaming the conversation but even just
opening it up right, making it something that you can
have more of a shared experience and conversation of and
make something more visible. Right once it's on screen, you
(32:51):
can talk about it with others, right, and you can
kind of point to it becomes this moment where that
emotion that you feel as well as something that you
can share and bring in people who you know this
maybe isn't there first priority, and maybe they care about it,
maybe they don't and maybe they disagree. But if it's
(33:11):
a work of art, if it's entertaining, if it catches
you and brings you in as a piece of media,
then that can be that entry point.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
So what do you look for in a filmmaker that
wants to submit their film to your film festival? I
asked that because again on Film Free Way, there's so
many film festivals for film festival to submit to, and
sometimes it be quite can be quite daunting, or it
can be a little bit confusing as to what to
say in the cover letter, for example. And if you've
(33:41):
got a portfolio of films which would suit your film festival,
which film the filmmaker should pick to submit to the festival.
So what do you look for in the perfect submission?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yeah, there is no perfect submission, of course we look
for really, I would say, it varies and again, like
we really do try and create space for a number
of different types of film and filmmaker. On the documentary side,
I would say when we started the festival, I thought
(34:16):
that we would be getting a lot more documentaries that
maybe had climate, like they lightly touched on climate, but
it wasn't a major theme. We've actually had so many
documentaries where climate really is interwoven into it that it's
hard sometimes for us to program documentaries where it's not
as mentioned or it's really like kind of mentioned in passing,
(34:37):
even if it's like a nature documentary, right or something
focused on what you might like really assume to be
something that is climate oriented. There's actually a really amazing
film last year that we ended up doing as part
of a year round program that was on a local
New York beekeeper and wasn't really climate related, but like
(34:59):
just this amazing service story of food and you know,
and kind of this personal relationship of father and daughter.
And we love the film, but we do at the
end of the day, we're the Climate Film Festival, and
we do want to make sure that the program films
that have kind of climate as a core theme. I
think when it comes to experimental works or narrative works,
(35:20):
we're a lot more flexible in terms of how that
appears right. It doesn't need to be about climate so explicitly,
and we're really looking again for kind of bringing in
those more creative works. As a documentary filmmaker and a
filmmaker at large, there are a few things that really
do make a difference. I think one that stands out
ironically because I'm not properly miked up here is sound
(35:42):
really does make a difference. Don't skimp on your sound production.
That that really does matter. There are short length also
does matter. You know, we program short of all lengths.
But it's a lot easy y're to fit in a
(36:03):
eighteen minute short than it is to fit in a
forty minute short, right, that forty minute short really does
if you're if you're making a film that's over thirty, right,
you need to be really confident that that's something that
can anchor a program, right, Because when we're programming that
along with other shorts, right, it's not a full feature,
so it's not quite standing out its own. We have
other shorts involved. But if it's thirty five minutes of
a you know, hour and ten minute program, that is
(36:25):
the anchor. And so if you've got a story that
you really want to push forward like that, make sure
it's really strong and can stand on its own and
can be the anchor for a larger program in conversation
or try and cut it down right. And so I
think also sometimes presenting multiple cuts like can be can
be a way of fitting into programs and otherwise, you know,
(36:49):
it never hurts to reach out like we don't. We
don't provide favoritism directly, right, Like anything goes through the
screen or process versus and foremost then goes through all
of our individual programmers. But you know, being being a friendly,
nice person and seeing you around certainly make sure that
(37:10):
we you know, we know, we know to keep an
eye out on your film. And you know, again just
being being a good person and being being part of
the community does help. And that's also what we're trying
to do and support is you know, build a community
people who are making new films and you don't always
have to have a high budget. A lot of times
if you have a great story and you're just trying
(37:30):
to make it and make a good film, like we're
really happy to program that and put that into.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
How do you see the evolution of your film festival?
And what I mean by that is sometimes festivals growing
to having a streaming network or distribution platform. Can you
see something like that happening in the future.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Yeah, there's a great question. We that is not our
theory of change. I think there are a number of
groups who are going to do that. Really well and
better than us. Right, We're never going to compete with
Netflix or Reach. And then there are other groups I know.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Like water Bear.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Is on one streaming platform. There are all other kind
of alternate distribution platforms like Kinemat, and I think our
DNA is really doing these in person evles. The way
that we're hoping to scale as a festival or to
broadener reach is to do more partnerships and more screenings
that are still physical screenings. They are still whether it's
in a theater or in a community space or in
(38:25):
a park, right, are ways to bring people together to
watch a movie in person. And those events don't happen
have to happen in New York. We've done a couple
in London, Atlanta, Washington, d C. And again those all
sort of emerge from collaboration and partnerships with other organizations.
So the way I would love to see us ROW
as a festival is by growing those partnerships and growing
(38:47):
those opportunities to create in person events and in person
moments for the films. Often the films that go through
the festival right to give them additional life, the additional distribution,
and then also additional visibility. So that some of the
those larger platforms where the people really specialize in digital
and streaming can pick them up and work with them.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And the press, how have they been in terms of
your festival? Have they all been on board? Because sometimes
climate change is not as well respected as it could be.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Well luckily, so far we're small enough that I don't
think we've been targeted by anymore who wants to call
us out. And you know, again there are pros and
cons to being Climate Film Festival, but we certainly wear
what we are on our sleeve. You know, there's no
there's no doubt about what you're getting into to some extent.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
And.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Generally we found we found that there are a lot
of there's a lot of supportive press. We do work
with the Guardian US as our presenting media partner.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
That's pretty big though.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah, yeah, oh, they've been fantastic and of course, you know,
as as a like respectful news institution, they also have
their own process so we don't always get you know,
there is a wall between the groups we work with
the journalists who are the Guardian, but it's amazing to
have them be be participants and be supporters and then
(40:08):
generally I think again, there's there's sort of this hunger
for a conversation. It's to be chatting with you and
to again kind of be talking about what is this
sort of niche thing in different spaces right where sometimes
it's talking about the you know, the film brings us
in and brings a different angle when we're talking to
(40:28):
a climate audience. The climate brings a different angle when
we're talking to a film audience. And at the end
of the day, like, who doesn't want to go watch
a movie?
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Yeah, so I would say, like, you know, we are.
Our experiences with press to date have been have been
really positive.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Oh I'm glad to hear it. And yeah, and lastly,
if there's one film you've seen that you've loved and
you've enjoyed that you wished could have been shown at
the Climate Film Festival, what film is that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Okay, well I will shout out the name of the
film that I was talking about earlier, which we did
end up showing, which is Keeper by Hannah Rapkin, you
young filmmaker. Short film about a father and daughter in
the Bronx, The Keeper and their Relationship really got a
few awards last year. She's a young filmmaker really just
(41:18):
like stirring, fantastic moving documentary, beautifully shot, beautiful story, beautiful people,
just amazing, amazing group on screen. And yeah, and it
was a privilege. And I think this is also the
privilege of having your own programming as festival. Is that
what we are for the festival itself. We really do
(41:38):
like we need to lean into climate, we make sure
everything goes through the process, and really do value having
this moment where we can kind of highlight so many
different voices. There's not always films that we can show
for whatever reason, right Like, sometimes it is climate. Sometimes
it is that they just got picked up by a distributor,
(41:58):
which is fantastic. Sometimes that you know, uh, you know
they're holding out for premier status at a bigger festival,
which also makes sense, right like that, there are a
lot of reasons that sometimes we can't screen a film,
and the year round programs are an opportunity for us
to kind of lean it and show it. So uh, yeah,
it's such a it's such a bummer. And this year too,
(42:19):
as we're we're starting to send out our acceptances and
make our final decisions, it's just so hard. Uh, this
is where I do wish we had we had a
little bit of a digital platform, right, because then you
could we could you know, I'll welcome to everyone in,
but then you still have what you cut down to
show in person. And I I just I think that
our are our real values that in person moment. So
(42:39):
we love to we love to continue these relationships, and
if we can't accept people, it's you know, it's not
it's not because we don't like the film. Oftentimes it's
just a matter of programming and making sure that the
program is balanced too, right. So sometimes that's another another
hard angle on it. You're catching me just as we've
sent out acceptances. So I'm extra roufal of all these
(43:01):
amazing films and I'm like, I wish we could program.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Alex, thanks so much for coming on the podcast that
I really really appreciate your time and speaking to me
and learning about the festival. And I can't wait to
see more from you.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Thank you, thanks for so many thoughtful questions. Really appreciate it.
You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more
amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
In today's episode, we dive into a powerful conversation with
Alec Turnbull, co founder of the New York Climate Film Festival,
a groundbreaking event that's changing how we feel and tell
and experience climate stories. From the origins of the festival
during the pandemic to creating films that blend activism, art
(00:35):
and emotion, Alex shares what it takes to build a
community of storytellers focused on our planet's most urgent challenges.
If you've ever wondered how film can shift perspectives, build hope,
or disrupt the status quo, this episode is for you. Alec,
how are you doing today?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Doing very well? Great to be chatting with you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Good good. I'm glad you're here and I'm glad we're
able to to talk and discuss your amazing festival. I
haven't spoke to anybody who's been a part of a
climate film festival yet, so it's a pleasure to speak
to it. Really really is.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, it's been a real, i would say, sort of
journey into this climate cinema space, and there are more
of us, and it's great to be creating it a
place to bring people together around it.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Right from the get go. How do you see your
role as someone at the intersection with the climate conversation?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I think our role exists both within the film industry
at large and kind of where does climate fit into
film and cinema, and then the broader conversation around climate
of where does film, cinema, mass media fit into how
we're dealing with this global crisis. So I'll start actually
(01:53):
with the second one, which is how how do we
deal with climate change and why? And what can film
figures do about it, if anything at all? And you know,
I think one thing that we've really seen, especially in
the last several years, is just how cultural an issue
climate is and has become, right, whether that's how you
(02:13):
live your life and sort of cultural habits and ways
of being, or certainly kind of from an American perspective,
how politicized it has been on the national stage. So
when we think about culture and we think about these
cultural issues, it's incredibly important to have that conversation where
it's happening right, not just in policy rooms, but also
(02:35):
to be able to see it in the every day right,
to be able to talk with your co workers about
something the TV show that you saw last night, and
have those shared touch points where these moments kind of
are made real and are also made visible. It's such
a slow process. It's such a I think, scientific thing
that bringing it outside of the papers, outside of the
(02:58):
academy and into either your living room or your cinema
or your conversations with friends and family really does have
this transformative effect about how we think about it at large.
And then just sort of within the industry, you know,
a film festival is sort of a unique and odd
(03:19):
thing to be starting almost in twenty twenty five. I
guess we started a couple of years ago, but still
it is a real way, I think, to bring together
filmmakers who are interested in the subject in person, and
that there is still a lot of power in that,
and then to bring audiences together, and I think that
once again there is a moment and power to kind
(03:41):
of being in a theater looking at this frinkling, flickering
screen with everyone around you and being able to have
that shared experience.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
What drew you to be a part of stories that
touch on environmental or social change.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So the film festival really emerged out of the collaboration
between myself my co founder English We are married, which
is how this kicked off. I made my own transition
into climate work in twenty twenty during the pandemic. My
background was in tech and software, and my journey into
(04:17):
climate had started a little bit before the pandemic, but
it was never something I really felt called to. I
never really knew how I fit in or that I
was the right one to be working on it. But
in twenty nineteen it seemed like there was just a
chain of sort of climate catastrophes, from orange Sky's in
San Francisco to wildfires in Australia, things that now seemed
(04:39):
to happen almost every year. But that was the first
year that they, at least for me, kind of broke through.
Is you know, maybe this is not something that I'm
called to work on or that I, you know, have
the direct skill sets for. Maybe it's something that everyone
should be working on, and it's something that maybe I
should try and figure out how I can be a
part of. And so under Lockdown, I personally was able
(05:02):
to just start learning I think into Google, you know,
what can you do about climate hundred? What can I?
And I met a really incredible network of other people
sort of on that same path and same journey. My
co founder English, she's her first name, family name. She
goes it's it's English, like the language. He is an
(05:24):
art historian and film curator. And her background is really
in museums. And at the time that I was sort
of on my own professional journey, she was actually working
in a major museum on fellowship here in New York
and really looking at, you know, just their collections and
looking at what was kind of emerging, and this climate
(05:45):
conversation started to come up, and she sort of saw
me going through this and started to bring it as
a conversation that she hadn't really been having and thinking
about in that cultural space to the museum, and it
wasn't and she's you know, asking kind of what they're doing,
but and it wasn't really being explored on a curatorial
level or on a practical level kind of on site
(06:05):
and buildings, and it just got us thinking, you know,
as she was wrapping up for PhD. She's now a
doctor of Art history and focused on cinema and cinema
and architecture got us thinking, you know what, we should
see what's out there? Is there a climate film festival
in New York? Who's doing the sword, who's pulling it together?
What climate films are there? And we started looking and
(06:28):
we found two things. The first was, to our utter surprise,
there didn't seem to be a climate film festival in
New York City as much as we looked for it.
There were sort of adjacent things, but we felt like
there was a difference between climate as a concept and
some of the more traditional environmental film festivals. There's a
lot of overlap. I can definitely talk more about that,
(06:50):
but I think that climate does sort of stand distinct
is something that really brings in that human element as
well as the greater world and kind of nature and
environmental not just our effect on nature, but also our
effect on nature, and it's our effect on ourselves. And
the other thing we found was there are just a
lot of climate movies out there. There's a lot of
climate cinema in ways that we didn't expect. And so
(07:14):
with those two things, we sort of were like, shouldn't
it started the joke and then you know, it sort
of snowballed and I grew out of control and de
Ac should chick it.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So what type of challenges did you go through when
you decided to move yourself away from tech into the
climate film festival space and how do you overcome them?
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I will say I haven't fully moved out of tech.
I still work professionally in climate tech. It's still something
that I do as a day job and and sort
of professionally. I think it's it's hard to make film
festivals work financially. Yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
The I would say.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
The challenges of moving kind of from tech and museums
into film festivals, I haven't been so much in terms
of of kind of this skill or lack of knowledge.
We've actually found that people have been incredibly supportive. There's
a lot to learn, and you know, I think we
both approach this with a lot of humility in terms
(08:12):
of not, you know, we're starting a film festival for
the first time, a little bit from scratch. We really
turned to an incredible advisory board and a number of
people who have done this before and kind of turned
to them for how do you do this? Looking for advice,
looking for ways to work and work with filmmakers. I
(08:34):
think we found that the filmmakers in general have been
really hungry as well for a place to show these
films and bring them together and to have this conversation
in a way that is called out as climate, you know,
not always, and I think a lot of filmmakers see
their works not as being reduced to climate, but having
that as an important element that they are not able
always to shine a light on. And we're able to
(08:56):
kind of bring out that element for this moment. The
challenges that we've run in to, I would say it's just,
you know, festivals are just a lot of work, a
lot more. I think if we'd known how much work
it was going to be going into it, I'm not
sure that we could have would have taken up the mantle.
But once you're in it, it's also just kind of
addictively rewarding to keep meeting people and putting these things on.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
So wow, Yeah, how many submissions do you usually get?
Because I sent some of my projects over the years,
I've sent via film Freeway, And I think one of
the big differences now is with film Freeway, which I
do love and enjoy, you're able to send films to
film festivals such ease. I get to feed in festival.
(09:43):
People who run festivals and own film festivals must be
getting an crazy amount of film sense to them, whereas before,
maybe even as little as ten twelve years ago, people
were burning DVDs, putting them in the post, telling them
to the film festivals, and that takes a different type
(10:03):
of dedication and cost every way.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I love Film Freeway. It's also again it's sort of
a newer festival, the only thing that we've ever known.
It makes it very easy, and I think we benefit
a little bit from being a niche festival. There's a
little bit of advertising work we have to do to
bring people in sometimes where we really do want to
pick everything that might have a climate as a team,
and again maybe they don't see it as suck and
really invite them in. For our first year, our first
(10:30):
official year was last year. We had sort of a
soft launch year zero. In twenty twenty three for our
first official year, we had three hundred fifty submissions, and
then this year we had four hundred and fifty, so
you know, quite an increase. And our approach has been
really once again one of collaboration and really we're essentially
(10:53):
an all volunteer team and we have an incredible team
of volunteer screeners, so we had this year we had
forty greeners who reviewed every film. So I guess are
approach is to systematize it a little bit. So we
have we've got a rubric across a few different category
sort of genre, category, climate and relevance score overall film quality,
(11:17):
and we run all of our screeners through sort of
this onboarding process. If here's the rubric, here's how to
think about and evaluate films. Every film gets seen by
two screeners, and then the top scoring films go to
our programming team. So we have programmers dedicated in each
sort of subcategory, so documentary features as a programmer, documentary shorts, narrative, episodics,
(11:41):
et cetera. And so within those categories, the programming team
kind of evaluates and assesses and pulls together their top
choices based off of this, using the score sort of
as a cut off and kind of a first past filter.
But then we really assemble sort of what that program is.
And then English as artistic director or sits down with
(12:01):
the final final kind of pitches from all the different
programmers and assembles what that program will be really again
kind of with an eye not just towards you know,
making sure we have everything in time, but also towards
what is you know, what's the shape, what are the
topics we cover as a climate film festival, what's the
shape of it? And also what's the emotional valance and residence? Right,
(12:24):
I think it's you know, there's a danger or maybe
even an expectation that a climate film festival will just
be think bummer, you know, just want one down or
after another. And there's certainly some of that, right. You know,
climate is not not the curious of subjects at large,
and I think it's important to have films that do
(12:46):
sit with that grief and do highlight these issues in
ways that hackle the reality. But it's also important and
I think part of our mission to take a wide
angle lens on this experience. Right, this is something that's
happening to everyone. It's existential, and there's so much art
(13:07):
to be made about it, whether it's documentary, whether it's scripted,
whether it's experimental, and there's so many feelings to be
had about it, including feelings of both including showcasing solutions
and feelings of anxiety and confusion, and you know, and brilliant,
whatever they may be, and so making sure that those
also exist to whatever extent we have can make those
(13:30):
happen on screen, and making sure that we've broken those.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
In So what exact choices do you make behind the
camera to shape how viewers perceive climate related themes.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
So there are a number of amazing groups that are
really working on how to do sustainable storytelling. So within
the industry, I think we actually use in front of
the camera and behind the camera, at least we do internally.
I'm not sure if it's industry standard, but really within
the industry, thinking about how it manifests on screen right
(14:01):
in the actual film itself. And then also sustainability on set,
which can be incredibly important as well. And if you're
doing any sort of production, you know obviously you have waste,
and I think people tend to focus on these sort
of smaller things that maybe seem more achievable, like, oh,
we can reduce our plastic usage, but really what matters
is not using diesel generators right and being thoughtful about
(14:26):
flying and kind of where your sets are. And so
there's incredible, incredible people who are working on sustainable production
at the studio level and also enabling that. Earth Angel
as a partner of ours, are doing our sustainability for
the fetsful itself. They work with a Green Shot in
Europe and they help sets essentially kind of go green
(14:47):
in various ways, so bringing batteries on set for lighting
that also have additional kind of creative benefits you can
do a lot when you don't have this like noisy
stinky generator, right, and then other ways also to to
sort of be more thoughtful about waste and other elements
of sustainability on set. So there's this whole world of
(15:07):
people who are doing incredible work on that. At the
studio level, I think Netflix has been doing a really
good job kind of behind the scenes. NBC Universals Greener
Light Program really puts this forward, and again there's there
are a lot of people who really like kind of
pushing pushing that on the production side. In the UK,
I believe Baptis Albert is really kind of the leaving
(15:29):
the charge in terms of even just tracking like how
do you measure the impact of it on set in
front of the camera. You also have amazing groups, so
Climate Spring in the UK has really been working to
push forward what climate storytelling is and can be, and
also not just in a documentary way, but in a
storytelling way. So providing grants and workshops for filmmakers to
(15:52):
think through what does climate change rom com blok light
or a horror film right and string lean into these
more traditional and often more appealing genres and thinking about
what does it mean to pull climate themes into it
and into those and to not just ignore it as
something that is out there. So I will do at
(16:16):
least one final shout up, maybe there will be more
to Good Energy as another group that has also been
doing a lot of work and thinking about this and
have the Good Energy Playbook. And part of the reason
I even bring them up now is one of their
big theses is that not having climate in your on
screen world is creating a work of fiction. Right, This
(16:38):
is something that is happening, and so if you want
to create something that exists in the real world, you
need to acknowledge it in some way, and you don't
necessarily need to make it the centerpiece. But if you
don't and you don't think about it again, depending on
your world, depending on your film, you know you're not
really representing the world as it is. You are in
(16:58):
fact doing science fiction and then also just looking for opportunities. Right,
you know, again, this is something that I think we're
all scared to talk about, right, it seems overwhelming And
at the same time, isn't that just like a great
great fodder for art, I would say, And so trying
to make it for me personally, and I think some
of the conversations we want to have at the film
(17:20):
festival just like how can we make this, you know,
something that like how can we start to get past
that taboo or the sense that you are always falling
into these tropes or these genres. Right, it has to
be a disaster movie, or it has to be you know,
the small environmental activists against the big company and those
those can be like really great films, It can be
really great tropes. But also how do you move beyond
(17:41):
and think about things that are weird and creative and
get you, as an artist excited to be making that film.
So that was a lot. But anyways, suffice to say,
her resources out there and people thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
So can you give us an example of a film
that really resonated of you, that told the story of
climate change very well? And can you give us an
example of a film that didn't have anything to do
with climate change and you felt it was unrealistic.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I think I'm going to jump to one of the
films from our festival last year that resonated I think
very well with a lot of viewers, which is one
with the Whale and set in you see might sorry, yeah,
oh great, yeah, amazing. So set in a very traditional,
(18:30):
i would say, like sort of climate change setting, which
is the Arctic, following a coming of age story of
a young boy and his sister in the Aleutian Islands
of Alaska, very remote and you know, dealing with hardship
and food insecurity exacerbated by climate change, and really transporting
(18:53):
the viewer to this world that on one hand you
never really have access to, right and it feels very
foreign and very far away, and on the other hand
is very much a world of you know, modern people
living out their lives with social media, growing up are
you know, going to school, and also living through indigenous
(19:17):
lifeways like whaling, which is a big touch point in
the film. So for me, I found it to be
this incredible and very nuanced view of not just a
coming of age story and a community in a way
that transports you and also makes you feel a kin
and sort of understanding, but also that takes a nuanced
(19:38):
approach to some of the challenges of even the environmental
movement itself in terms of trying to balance working with
indigenous life ways, working with conservation, with different priorities, which
is something that as we go forward, I think as
a movement are always trying to struggle with. Then again,
are kind of these these real moments for our incinema,
(20:00):
these moments you always want to have, these conflict moments,
and these are almost unexpected things where you have many
parties that have this they're certainly their own personal moral
high ground that start to conflict and where the viewer
you can kind of understand where everyone's coming from, and
you just have these these moments of conflict and uh,
you know, tragedy and joy as well. So that I
(20:23):
think was a great film. I don't I wouldn't necessarily
call out and I am not going to call out
any movies for not necessarily dealing dealing with it well,
because I know it's you know, it's hard to make
a movie whever you know, who whoever is doing it.
I would say that the thing that I see as
(20:46):
less effective and also studies have shown to be less
effective and are movies that do end up pulling into
some of these tropes right of again trying to lean
into genre conventions around oftentimes again important stories to be
told individual activists who are fighting against the kind of
(21:07):
whether it's a mining company or a big fossil fuel company.
But you always need to find a way to make
those stories fresh because I think as a viewer you've
seen them over and over again and so that you
end up letting it wash over you. And it can
be a great film. You can learn about this place,
you can learn about this light, but it can be
(21:28):
hard to then feel that desire to take action because
you've also seen this movie before, right, and it's like, oh,
I've seen that film before. Is not necessarily something that
then leads someone to start to embrace their own agency
in this in this wider area.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
So do you think experimental formats help push the boundaries
of climate storytelling?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
I love it, and I think this is part of
our DNA as a festival, is really coming out of
my co founders again kind of background in the art
world and with museum. Yes, I think that this dovetails
really well with what we were just talking about. This
idea of how can you think about pushing or not
(22:09):
just content but also form and climate is something that
in some ways is great to have on screen, right.
It's this medium of time, and climate change is something
where a normal human time frame it's really hard to
(22:31):
see happening, and with film we can slow down, we
can speed up. It is like, ultimately that it is
a medium of time, and so by being able to
lean into that and link to that creatively, I think
that you can make visible these elements of climate, sometimes
literally right, sometimes it's receding glaciers, but sometimes much more
(22:55):
either spiritually or existentially right, philosophically, these ideas that you
can't really wrap your head around. I think I'm absolutely
on the name of the film. But Devrastratman had a
really wonderful sort of more experimental film around geology and
rocks and time that really resonated with me as something
(23:15):
where I never really thought about geology before seeing the film.
And you know the ways that you know rocks almost
you know they do change. I think of them as
these static, ever present things, right, and it's like, no,
they move, they change, They evolve, they you know, and
they metamorphose and so being able to again kind of
(23:37):
which the ways that we think that we see is
is so cool and that again I think it's come out.
I have a lot of anxiety around climate change. Is
something that helps at least at least me kind of
think through and process and be inspired.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
And what kinds of collaborations like that was between curators,
climate experts and artists. Do you think of a cent
in making impactful climate films?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I'm pausing because we are a very collaboration heavy festival
and very collaboration forward, so I just want to say
all collaborations and I think there is some truth to that.
There are a lot of people working on this and
I think that this is sort of what we've seen,
and there are a lot of people who want to
talk about it and want to be working on something
(24:25):
related to climate, whether again it's direct or indirect, And
we don't always feel that way. Oftentimes, I think it's
easy to feel isolated in the work that you're doing
or to feel siloed. And I think that there are
a lot of silos that end up happening both in
the film industry and then within kind of the climate
and culture industry at large, just because there's so much
(24:46):
right and oftentimes because we work in these different industries
where the art world is different from the film world,
is different from theater, it's different from people who are
doing dance. In New York. There's a group that does
climate kind of Broadway, and again, you know a lot
of the similar sorts of things of how do you
make theatrical sets more sustainable and reduce waste, and then
(25:08):
also how do you do it on stage? And so
we have all of these shared moments, all of these
shared things similar again in the art world around both
the actual like physical waste and impact and energy of
art itself and then also the medium right and kind
of what you're doing with it, and so bridging I
(25:31):
think that bridging these gaps and collaborating cross sector is
inspiring and does ultimately allow us to kind of break
through these again kind of habits of thinking where we
end up in the same old stories and we need
nu ones.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Okay, so when you need new ones, I mean the
Climate Film Festival believes in building a diverse community of storytellers.
How do you incorporate and uplift voices in your filmmaking,
So in your film.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Festival, yeah, absolutely, I would say one, we've been just
so lucky, I think, just by virtue of being a
climate Film festival to really already see a lot more
diverse voices that are making these films and certainly participants
in them, and we have filmmakers from all over the world.
(26:24):
I think sixty countries, incredible sort of gender representation. I've
seen about slightly over fifty percent own directed films where
we submitted to CFF. There's still sort of these historic
gaps and inequalities in terms of who's making films and
who's able to participate. I think that there are a
(26:45):
number of documentary filmmakers out there, and we don't just
highly documentary, but they jump to mind for this who
have started working more directly and a more creative documentary
practice of working directly with the participants in the documentary
to not just be you know, the subjects of the documentary,
but also the makers of it right to also pick
(27:05):
up the camera and use it and to be co
creators of those documentaries. We always like to highlight those
films as well. What we do as the festival is
thankfully again you know, to a large extent. We're really
working with great films, and I think a lot of
films coming from unique voices are the ones that stand out,
and so we're able to program and create a platform
(27:28):
for them to be on screen and together in New York.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
And as you said, the film festivals in New York. Now,
New York is like a mecro of indie film. It's
a huge, big city. Everybody knows about New York. It's
a Juggernau. How do you feel the festival would be
if it was in a smaller city or in a
different type of environment, And how does it affect what
happens on the festival day, that in the atmosphere, and
(27:55):
how it's received.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
As with all things, it is a double edged sword
being in New York right. As you mentioned, one of
the great benefits to being in New York is that
we are able to claim a little bit of its
cultural cachet. Right There are so many people here, it
is a hub for cinema, for arts, and being the
(28:16):
New York Climate Film Festival, I think does give us
this ability. And we also take place during Climate Weekend YC,
which is at the same time as the UN General
Assembly right, it's this moment where people really it's not
just New York, but people truly are coming to the
city all over the world, and so it elevates the
number of people who were able to bring the profile
(28:38):
of people who were able to bring in we're actually
working on climate as well. However, there are challenges as
well to being in the city. Obviously, there's a lot
of competition with other amazing festivals and films and cultural
events and other things going on, so you always need
(28:58):
to find your own way to stand the noise. And
then also I think it changes the nature of the
festival as a place for community, and this is something
that we really try and create and focus on at
the festival itself. When you go to a smaller festival
or a smaller place, right, it can be a small festival,
or it could be a major festival like sun Dance,
(29:19):
but you're in Park City. Everyone's there for that event. Right.
You can go into any restaurant, you can walk down
the street and then you'll run into filmmakers, You'll run
into friends, you'll run into other people who are they're
having that shared experience. And in New York you just
can't do that. It's impossible, and so what we try
and do is we really try for the festival to
do as much as we can to create a hub,
(29:40):
to create that place where people can gather, and so
we cheat it to we have one really concentrated weekend.
We have a few kind of events throughout the week.
We're ating an extra sort of summit day this year.
But I think for us it's important can you create
a physical place where everyone can come. And it's also
not just movies. We also make sure that we have lunches,
(30:04):
we have coffee opportunities for filmmakers to meet not just
other filmmakers, but also to meet people who are working
on climate problems themselves as scientists or academics, and also programming. Again,
kind of all on site is the greatest excess that
we can.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Ah, that's amazing. So what type of films about climate
change would you like to see that haven't been made
in New York?
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, we would love to see. I mean, we have
amazing documentaries and we also have an amazing narrative lineup,
but I think we would really love to see more
narrative films, more scripted films, features shorts. Once again, I
think there's so much stared to mind for creative work
and opportunity, and we love to see more of it.
(30:49):
I think it's also how you start to make climate
more mainstream as well.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
And how do you envision the role of media involving
in the next five to ten years when it comes
to environmental storytelling.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
The next five to ten years is the big question.
I think we're definitely part of. You know, we're at
this moment in the industry where where so much is
changing and it's really hard. I think it's also what
we see. It's really hard up there, especially for documentary
filmmakers right now in the market, and you see a
lot of people working on kind of creative methods of distribution.
(31:20):
My hope and my my thoughts at the where we
live is that the Climate Film Festival and kind of
climate films almost have a leg up on some other
ones because they think a lot of the distribution model
really is going to be a lot more kin to
impact filmmaking and impact producing going forward. For smaller and
(31:41):
more indie films right where you do look a lot
more to how can you do creative collaborations around financing,
but also how can you do create collaborations around distribution,
working with smaller groups, working with and we do year
round events too, right where we partner with local climate
groups and bring the film, or wener with local arts
groups and we bring the climate. But being able to
(32:03):
create these kind of anchor screenings with other people are
also sort of passionate about the space is a way
to I think, is something that you see these impact
filmmakers and climate filmmakers already doing, and I think it's
probably a more robust way as we stare down a
uncertain future in terms of the distribution and streaming mandscape,
(32:29):
in terms of in terms of media at large. I
think again, you know, we hope that this is a
way of not just mainstreaming the conversation but even just
opening it up right, making it something that you can
have more of a shared experience and conversation of and
make something more visible. Right once it's on screen, you
(32:51):
can talk about it with others, right, and you can
kind of point to it becomes this moment where that
emotion that you feel as well as something that you
can share and bring in people who you know this
maybe isn't there first priority, and maybe they care about it,
maybe they don't and maybe they disagree. But if it's
(33:11):
a work of art, if it's entertaining, if it catches
you and brings you in as a piece of media,
then that can be that entry point.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
So what do you look for in a filmmaker that
wants to submit their film to your film festival? I
asked that because again on Film Free Way, there's so
many film festivals for film festival to submit to, and
sometimes it be quite can be quite daunting, or it
can be a little bit confusing as to what to
say in the cover letter, for example. And if you've
(33:41):
got a portfolio of films which would suit your film festival,
which film the filmmaker should pick to submit to the festival.
So what do you look for in the perfect submission?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yeah, there is no perfect submission, of course we look
for really, I would say, it varies and again, like
we really do try and create space for a number
of different types of film and filmmaker. On the documentary side,
I would say when we started the festival, I thought
(34:16):
that we would be getting a lot more documentaries that
maybe had climate, like they lightly touched on climate, but
it wasn't a major theme. We've actually had so many
documentaries where climate really is interwoven into it that it's
hard sometimes for us to program documentaries where it's not
as mentioned or it's really like kind of mentioned in passing,
(34:37):
even if it's like a nature documentary, right or something
focused on what you might like really assume to be
something that is climate oriented. There's actually a really amazing
film last year that we ended up doing as part
of a year round program that was on a local
New York beekeeper and wasn't really climate related, but like
(34:59):
just this amazing service story of food and you know,
and kind of this personal relationship of father and daughter.
And we love the film, but we do at the
end of the day, we're the Climate Film Festival, and
we do want to make sure that the program films
that have kind of climate as a core theme. I
think when it comes to experimental works or narrative works,
(35:20):
we're a lot more flexible in terms of how that
appears right. It doesn't need to be about climate so explicitly,
and we're really looking again for kind of bringing in
those more creative works. As a documentary filmmaker and a
filmmaker at large, there are a few things that really
do make a difference. I think one that stands out
ironically because I'm not properly miked up here is sound
(35:42):
really does make a difference. Don't skimp on your sound production.
That that really does matter. There are short length also
does matter. You know, we program short of all lengths.
But it's a lot easy y're to fit in a
(36:03):
eighteen minute short than it is to fit in a
forty minute short, right, that forty minute short really does
if you're if you're making a film that's over thirty, right,
you need to be really confident that that's something that
can anchor a program, right, Because when we're programming that
along with other shorts, right, it's not a full feature,
so it's not quite standing out its own. We have
other shorts involved. But if it's thirty five minutes of
a you know, hour and ten minute program, that is
(36:25):
the anchor. And so if you've got a story that
you really want to push forward like that, make sure
it's really strong and can stand on its own and
can be the anchor for a larger program in conversation
or try and cut it down right. And so I
think also sometimes presenting multiple cuts like can be can
be a way of fitting into programs and otherwise, you know,
(36:49):
it never hurts to reach out like we don't. We
don't provide favoritism directly, right, Like anything goes through the
screen or process versus and foremost then goes through all
of our individual programmers. But you know, being being a friendly,
nice person and seeing you around certainly make sure that
(37:10):
we you know, we know, we know to keep an
eye out on your film. And you know, again just
being being a good person and being being part of
the community does help. And that's also what we're trying
to do and support is you know, build a community
people who are making new films and you don't always
have to have a high budget. A lot of times
if you have a great story and you're just trying
(37:30):
to make it and make a good film, like we're
really happy to program that and put that into.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
How do you see the evolution of your film festival?
And what I mean by that is sometimes festivals growing
to having a streaming network or distribution platform. Can you
see something like that happening in the future.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
Yeah, there's a great question. We that is not our
theory of change. I think there are a number of
groups who are going to do that. Really well and
better than us. Right, We're never going to compete with
Netflix or Reach. And then there are other groups I know.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Like water Bear.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Is on one streaming platform. There are all other kind
of alternate distribution platforms like Kinemat, and I think our
DNA is really doing these in person evles. The way
that we're hoping to scale as a festival or to
broadener reach is to do more partnerships and more screenings
that are still physical screenings. They are still whether it's
in a theater or in a community space or in
(38:25):
a park, right, are ways to bring people together to
watch a movie in person. And those events don't happen
have to happen in New York. We've done a couple
in London, Atlanta, Washington, d C. And again those all
sort of emerge from collaboration and partnerships with other organizations.
So the way I would love to see us ROW
as a festival is by growing those partnerships and growing
(38:47):
those opportunities to create in person events and in person
moments for the films. Often the films that go through
the festival right to give them additional life, the additional distribution,
and then also additional visibility. So that some of the
those larger platforms where the people really specialize in digital
and streaming can pick them up and work with them.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And the press, how have they been in terms of
your festival? Have they all been on board? Because sometimes
climate change is not as well respected as it could be.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Well luckily, so far we're small enough that I don't
think we've been targeted by anymore who wants to call
us out. And you know, again there are pros and
cons to being Climate Film Festival, but we certainly wear
what we are on our sleeve. You know, there's no
there's no doubt about what you're getting into to some extent.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
And.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Generally we found we found that there are a lot
of there's a lot of supportive press. We do work
with the Guardian US as our presenting media partner.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
That's pretty big though.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah, yeah, oh, they've been fantastic and of course, you know,
as as a like respectful news institution, they also have
their own process so we don't always get you know,
there is a wall between the groups we work with
the journalists who are the Guardian, but it's amazing to
have them be be participants and be supporters and then
(40:08):
generally I think again, there's there's sort of this hunger
for a conversation. It's to be chatting with you and
to again kind of be talking about what is this
sort of niche thing in different spaces right where sometimes
it's talking about the you know, the film brings us
in and brings a different angle when we're talking to
(40:28):
a climate audience. The climate brings a different angle when
we're talking to a film audience. And at the end
of the day, like, who doesn't want to go watch
a movie?
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Yeah, so I would say, like, you know, we are.
Our experiences with press to date have been have been
really positive.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Oh I'm glad to hear it. And yeah, and lastly,
if there's one film you've seen that you've loved and
you've enjoyed that you wished could have been shown at
the Climate Film Festival, what film is that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Okay, well I will shout out the name of the
film that I was talking about earlier, which we did
end up showing, which is Keeper by Hannah Rapkin, you
young filmmaker. Short film about a father and daughter in
the Bronx, The Keeper and their Relationship really got a
few awards last year. She's a young filmmaker really just
(41:18):
like stirring, fantastic moving documentary, beautifully shot, beautiful story, beautiful people,
just amazing, amazing group on screen. And yeah, and it
was a privilege. And I think this is also the
privilege of having your own programming as festival. Is that
what we are for the festival itself. We really do
(41:38):
like we need to lean into climate, we make sure
everything goes through the process, and really do value having
this moment where we can kind of highlight so many
different voices. There's not always films that we can show
for whatever reason, right Like, sometimes it is climate. Sometimes
it is that they just got picked up by a distributor,
(41:58):
which is fantastic. Sometimes that you know, uh, you know
they're holding out for premier status at a bigger festival,
which also makes sense, right like that, there are a
lot of reasons that sometimes we can't screen a film,
and the year round programs are an opportunity for us
to kind of lean it and show it. So uh, yeah,
it's such a it's such a bummer. And this year too,
(42:19):
as we're we're starting to send out our acceptances and
make our final decisions, it's just so hard. Uh, this
is where I do wish we had we had a
little bit of a digital platform, right, because then you
could we could you know, I'll welcome to everyone in,
but then you still have what you cut down to
show in person. And I I just I think that
our are our real values that in person moment. So
(42:39):
we love to we love to continue these relationships, and
if we can't accept people, it's you know, it's not
it's not because we don't like the film. Oftentimes it's
just a matter of programming and making sure that the
program is balanced too, right. So sometimes that's another another
hard angle on it. You're catching me just as we've
sent out acceptances. So I'm extra roufal of all these
(43:01):
amazing films and I'm like, I wish we could program.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Alex, thanks so much for coming on the podcast that
I really really appreciate your time and speaking to me
and learning about the festival. And I can't wait to
see more from you.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Thank you, thanks for so many thoughtful questions. Really appreciate it.
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