A Message from our Executive Director
At The Redford Center, we view storytelling through film as a missing piece to addressing the environmental crisis, and filmmakers like the ones we support — as powerful leaders who bring us together and ignite the public and political will we need to take courageous action now.
Despite this, environmental filmmaking remains a severely overlooked and under-resourced field According to the International Documentary Association, there are roughly 440 grants that support nonfiction filmmakers Of that, less than 1% explicitly state that they prioritize environmental stories, and two of those grants come from The Redford Center
Our team is committed to increasing the support available for this work, and our Redford Center Grants program embodies this purpose. It is a culmination of our values in action and a manifestation of our late cofounder James Redford’s vision of supporting filmmakers telling stories of progress, leadership, possibility, and hope. Since its inception in 2016, this program has supported nearly 50 documentary projects and awarded more than $1.3 million in funding. These films have changed policy, made way for new leaders, healed communities, and emboldened decision makers to get in the game.
Our newest grantee cohort, selected from a pool of 250 applicants representing 20 countries, showcases valuable insights and inspiration. Collectively, their work is a signal to the film industry to embrace inclusive and impactful environmental films. It is a demonstration of how to achieve this and we are immensely grateful to be part of these projects.
I also want to recognize and express deep gratitude to our program advisors, who serve as essential supports to the staff and grantees, and to our generous donors, including the New York Community Trust, whose early vision and lead gift made this program possible; the Walton Family Foundation, whose support is helping fuel the next chapter of this work; and GoPro, for their in-kind support providing camera equipment and virtual training for our grantees
I encourage you to get to know the artists and activists in this grantee cohort. Let them inspire hope within you, as they bridge perspectives and experiences and help accelerate our collective efforts to bring about a healthier world. In community,
JillTidman ExecutiveDirector
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“For me, Redford Center Grants is the most rewarding thing we do... We want to accelerate and broaden our ability to make an impact in the space. By supporting other projects, your chances of lighting little fires everywhere is that much better.”
James Redford Co-founder, The Redford Center In Memory 1962-2020
Co-founded by activists and filmmakers Robert Redford and James Redford, we are one of the only US-based nonprofits solely dedicated to environmental impact filmmaking.
We develop and invest in the stories and storytellers strengthening, broadening, and activating the environmental movement Since 2005, we have delivered more than $12 million in financial and other support to more than 150 solutions-forward environmental films designed to make an impact.
The environment is our mission, and film is our medium.Behind the scenes of 2020 Grantee,' Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust'
Redford Center Grants
Since launching in 2016, The Redford Center has remained one of the few entities exclusively funding and providing multi-faceted grant support to independent environmental documentaries. The Redford Center Grants program is designed to support feature documentaries and episodic docuseries at any stage of development, production, or post-production. It currently operates on a two-year cycle and provides funding, access to a network of industry and environmental experts, a professional development retreat, and the opportunity to apply for second-year funds.
$1.3 million distributed in grants and project support to filmmakers globally 47 105 8 grantee films and projects picked up by international platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, PBS 300+
new films and stories supported filmmakers in our grants program awards and festival recognitions granted to grantee films
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Our 2022-23 Grantees
Black Snow
Production Location: Russia
Director: Alina Simone
Bring Them Home
Production Location: Montana
Directors: Daniel Glick, Ivan MacDonald, Ivy MacDonald
Emergent City
Production Location: New York
Directors: Jay Arthur Sterrenburg, Kelly Anderson
Finding Home
Production Location: Worldwide
Director: Maria Stanisheva
Kay
Production Location: Mexico
Directors: Jimena Mancilla, Ángel
Ricardo Linares Colmenares
Sacrifice Zones: The 48217
Production Location: Michigan Director: Ben Corona
Seeing Green
Production Location: Worldwide
Director: Su Rynard
The Last Chinamperos
Production Location: Mexico
Director: Megan Alldis
The Queendom
Production Location: Mexico
Director: Otilia Portillo
Our Seeds
Production Location: Turkey
Directors: Erhan Arık, Meryem Yavuz
Undamming Klammath
Production Location: California
Director: Shane Anderson
Fruit of Soil
Production Location: Oregon
Director: Faith Briggs Rose
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Black Snow
When residents of a remote Siberian coal mining settlement discover an old Soviet mine has caught fire beneath their neighborhood, they turn to Natalia Zubkova, a local homemaker-turned-journalist, for help. But when her independent news coverage starts going viral, they instead find themselves the targets of a massive government disinformation campaign, forcing Natalia to embark on a dangerous and revelatory quest to reveal the full extent of the environmental catastrophe unfolding in their midst.
Director: Alina Simone
Producer: Kristine Barfod
Stage: Post Production
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Black Snow
AlinaSimone
Alina Simone (Director/DP) is a Ukrainian-American journalist and author whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian Long Read, California Sunday, Slate, and NPR, among many others For seven years, she was a regular contributor to the international news radio show The World, a co-production of the BBC. Her articles have been featured on best-of lists in The Atlantic, NPR and Rolling Stone, and have been optioned for film by major studios. She is the author of an essay collection and a novel, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and has taught writing at Yale University Simone is the recipient of a Logan Nonfiction Fellowship, the Andrew Berends Film Fellowship and a New York State Council of the Arts/New York Foundation of the Arts Film Fellowship Black Snow is her first film
KristineBarfod
Kirstine Barfod (Producer) received an EMMY, a Cinema Eye award for Outstanding Achievement in Production, a Peabody award, and a 2020 Academy Award nomination for producing THE CAVE, directed by Oscar-nominated director Feras Fayyad (LAST MEN IN ALEPPO) She has produced and co-produced a dozen feature documentaries and documentary series, including REUNITED (CPHDOX), THE MAGIC LIFE OF V (Sundance), and IBRAHIM (TIFF). She has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2019.
Bring Them Home
A hundred and fifty years ago, the Blackfoot people were nearly destroyed when the American Bison, one of the most important links to their identity, culture, and spirituality, was slaughtered to near-extinction. Today, a small group of Blackfoot are working to right these historic wrongs by returning wild bison to their lands – an act that would heal people, re-enliven traditional culture, and bring economic opportunity to their community. It’s a mission that has been threatened at nearly every turn by nonnative politicians, cattle ranchers, internal politics, and the legacy of colonialism, but one that has persisted nonetheless BRING THEM HOME charts this struggle from past to present, following the tribal members who have given their lives and hearts to this effort, and is an intimate look at the willpower and resilience it takes to survive and thrive in the face of near-continuous hostility.
Directors: Daniel Glick, Ivy MacDonald, Ivan MacDonald
Producers: Daniel Glick, Ivan MacDonald
Stage: Post Production
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Bring Them Home
DanielGlick
Daniel Glick is an Emmy-winning director, producer, writer, cinematographer, and editor who has worked on projects of all types including documentaries, narrative films, comedies, commercials, and web series. These projects have garnered more than a dozen awards and span a range of topics that Daniel is passionate about such as indigenous rights, wildlife, the arts, science, conservation, and prison reform. His first feature documentary film, 'A Place to Stand,' the true story of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, broadcast nationally on PBS in 2018. Three of his most recent personal projects were 'Our Last Refuge', 'Iniskim,' and 'Bring Them Home' – all short films set on the Blackfeet Reservation that he worked on with Blackfeet tribal members.
IvyMacDonald
Ivy is a Montana-based filmmaker and enrolled member of the Blackfeet tribe of Browning Montana. She graduated from the University of Montana in 2017 with a BFA in Digital Filmmaking. Over the last five years, she has produced and directed work for Showtime, ESPN, and ACLU, and is currently working on her first featurelength documentary titled, 'Bring Them Home.' She was also a 4th World Media Lab Fellow for Tracy Rector’s indigenous filmmakers program and alumni of the Firelight Media Doc Lab fellowship.
anMacDonald
my award-winning filmmaker who is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe His der In Big Horn' premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and will air nationally on ural fellow of the Illuminative and Netflix Producers Fellowship and an alumnus of the Firelight Media Lab with his sister Ivy. His directorial debut 'When They Were Here' is currently in production and has been supported by ITVS, Chicken and Egg Pictures, and Sundance.
Emergent City
In the wake of deindustrialization and on the cusp of climate catastrophe, a Brooklyn community grapples with the future of New York City's last working waterfront. Over a decade, Emergent City explores power and process in a working class neighborhood facing gentrification, development and the need for jobs that will allow people to stay in the place they call home. The film is a 360° observational portrait that leans into the complexity of issues often framed in black and white. Emergent City asks viewers to consider how change might emerge from dialogue and collective action in a world where too many outcomes are constrained by money, politics and business as usual.
Directors: Kelly Anderson and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg
Producer: Brenda Avila-Hanna Stage: In Production
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Emergent City
BrendaAvila-Hanna
Brenda Ávila-Hanna is a filmmaker and educator from Mexico City currently living in California. Her work has been showcased at HotDocs, Lakino Berlin, HBO, PBS, Fusion Network and more. Brenda was part of the inaugural cohort of DOC NYC’s “Documentary Industry New Leaders” and a 2021 Rockwood/Just Films Fellow. She is a member-owner of the film distribution cooperative New Day Films and a co-director of the Video Consortium MX. Brenda is a programmer and Artist Development lead for the Watsonville Film Festival and a Research Fellow and Lecturer at UC Santa Cruz.
JayArthurSterrenberg
Jay Arthur Sterrenberg is a Brooklyn-based director and editor whose work has been broadcast on PBS, HBO, & Netflix and screened at Sundance, Tribeca, Berlin & IDFA His editing credits include Academy Award short-listed 'Dark Money' (POV), Emmy winning 'Trophy' (CNN Films) and Academy Award short-listed 'After Maria' (Netflix) Jay is a founder of the award-winning, Sunset Park-based Meerkat Media Collective and a member-owner of New Day Films cooperative where he began collaborating with co-director Kelly Anderson & producer Brenda Avila-Hanna As a director, his short observational documentary 'Public Money' premiered in the inaugural f POV Sh t
KellyAnderson
Kelly Anderson is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker whose documentaries include 'My Brooklyn' (America ReFramed), 'Every Mother's Son' (POV/ITVS), and 'Out At Work' (HBO) Her work has received the Tribeca Audience Award, a GLAAD Award, and a national Emmy nomination. She currently chairs the Department of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College.
Finding Home
FINDING HOME is an animated documentary series and interactive installation made up of twelve 5-minute episodes. Each episode features the recorded testimony of an actual environmental refugee uprooted from their home and forced to relocate to strange new lands, and uses the power of animation to convey raw emotion and to reveal the life-shattering effects of climate change. The series is a collection of diverse personal stories from around the world that represent the various impacts of climate that force people to flee: ocean level rise, drought, hurricanes, tsunamis and other extreme weather events. The goal of the series is to show the concrete impact of climate change on people’s daily life and the subsequent environmental migration wave we are witnessing Climate refugees have been forecasted at over 200 million people by 2050.
Director/Producer: Maria Stanisheva
Producer: Manon Messiant
Stage: In Production
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Finding Home
Maria Stanisheva is a film director/producer and founder of ANIMADOCS, an independent film production house based between NYC and Sofia A graduate of Sofia University, Central European University and New York Film Academy's Documentary filmmaking program, Maria specializes in social issue documentaries, animation and experimenting with mixed genres. The animateddocumentary FATHER which she produced was awarded 28 times, including the Golden Dove for Animated Film at DOK Leipzig Festival. Her 2016 animated campaign “Together to End Male Guardianship” commissioned by Human Rights Watch Saudi Arabia was seen by over 10 million people and resulted in factual legislative change
MariaStanisheva ManonMessiant
Manon Messiant is a French producer After studying political science, she began working as production assistant on sets, then at Kazak Productions In 2017, she decided to devote herself to independent animation and joined Sacrebleu productions, where she was in charge of the production of all animated projects - she worked with Céline Devaux, Agnès Patron, Michaela Pavlatova... Since 2018, she became associate producer at Iliade et Films where she produces a new generation of authors – Valentin Noujaïm, Maria Stanisheva, Loïc Espuche, and Laura Thomassaint.
Fruit of Soil
Shantae and Art Johnson are two dreamers at the heart of a Black farmer's movement in Oregon working around food sovereignty, land ownership, community healing, and place reclamation. Their plan had been to homestead cooped up in an apartment, they found joy in the friendly competition of trying to best each other at growing window sill vegetables. They missed the land, the gardening they’d grown up with and watched their grandmothers do. After years of Art working as a long haul trucker and Shantae for the City as a doula, they decided to quit their jobs They used their savings to enroll in a farming education program and began to figure out how to get back to the land. Together, they're creating a ripple of change in the Black community by growing food, investing in Black farmers, and feeding Black people. Their farms are a new Mecca for Black folks in a city that is still very isolating for many. It's an example of what could be; the fruits of a world Black farmers are reimagining for each other.
Director: Faith Briggs Rose
Producer: Tracy Nguyen-Chung
Stage: In Production
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Fruit of Soil
Faith is a documentary filmmaker and podcast host passionate about sharing contemporary stories from underserved communities. Her favorite feelings are sun on skin and warm mud oozing between toes. She is grateful for the life changing knowledge of literary grandmothers including Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Zora Neale Hurston, & Toni Cade Bambara She works at the intersection of environment, race, history, culture and the outdoors She collaborates with organizations, brands and individuals to share stories that contribute to co-creating the better world we believe in She is a graduate of Yale University and the Journalism Institute at New York University.
FaithBriggsRose TracyNguyen-Chung
Tracy is a strategist, storyteller, and organizer whose work spans documentary, commercial and branded, environmental, and communications Her most recent work explores abolition through an environmental justice lens Her previous credits include the BAFTA and Emmy-nominated documentary, 'The Great Hack' (co-producer) and 'Connection' (producer/co-director), which world premiered at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Tracy is a Partner at After Bruce, Brown Girls Doc Mafia board member, the founder of Brown Folks Fishing, and was recognized as one of Outside Magazine’s 2019 Outsiders of the Year for her work with the organization.
Kay
KAY is the story of a fishers group from the Port of Celestun, a small town located on the emblematic Yucatan Peninsula, who create the largest Fishing Refuge Zone (FRZ) in Mexico. This initiative seeks to restore the quantity and types of species that inhabit this region to face the severe threats of climate change, pollution, and overexploitation of the oceans. These fishers of Mayan ascendence will fight against all adversities because they are convinced that their initiative can significantly change the country and inspire other fishing communities to protect their resources for future generations.
Director/Producer: Ángel Ricardo Linares Colmenares
Co-Director/Producer: Jimena Mancilla Stage: In Production
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ÁngelRicardoLinares
Colmenares
Ángel is a Venezuelan documentary filmmaker based in México He graduated from the National School of Film Arts at UNAM (ENAC-UNAM) and was nominated for the Ariel Award and was awarded best documentary short film at Morelia International Film Festival among other national and international awards. His documentaries have been screened at the Semaine de la Critique of the Cannes Film Festival, the Sarajevo Film Festival, and the Havana Film Festival, among others. He was elected as Jackson Wild Summit Fellow 2022; Santiago Wild Lab Fellow 2023; at the Pathways Mentorship Program of the Realscreen Summit 2021 and the Emerging Content Creator Initiative of the NALIP His work is focused on the social and environmental issues of indigenous, peasant, and rural communities in Latin America and the world.
JimenaMancilla
Jimena is a producer and multidisciplinary artist with an MA in Applied Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama Founder of Matricaria production company, she has collaborated in creating and producing multidisciplinary projects in Mexico, the UK, and Europe She was one of four producers selected worldwide by Everywoman Studios and the Real Screen Summit 2021 as part of the Propelle Accelerator for Women programme. Her work focuses on the documentary genre with an interdisciplinary approach in projects that address gender equality, migration, refugees, and environmental causes
Kay
Our Seeds
In northeastern Turkey, a farming couple is still keeping a 1500-year-old ancestral seed alive. The farming couple’s faith in nature begins to be tested by the emerging dreams of their children and the test deepens as the harvest of this year is harder than usual. It is painful for Oruç and Güneş to imagine that the 1500 year-old familyseed will not be planted when they are gone, and it gradually turns into a nightmare for them. The farming couple, facing the fact that they cannot leave the fate of the seed in the hands of their children, and that they cannot enslave the fate of their children to the future of the seed, start looking for other ways to keep the seed alive. Therefore, the couple tries to share the seed with other villagers and persuade them to plant the seed as a solution to keep the seed alive. However, convincing the other farmers to plant this seed is not going to be easy, as it has a very low yield compared to the hybrid seeds.
Director: Erhan ArıkCinematographer:
Meryem YavuzStage: In production
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Our Seeds
ErhanArık
Erhan Arık was born in Ardahan, Turkey in 1984 and studied journalism. Since 2010, he has worked on photography and video projects focused on the memory of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. His project, which he shot in the villages at the border between Turkey and Armenia titled “Horovel”, was exhibited in Turkey, Armenia, and France His photography work “Gayan” which he started in 2014, is about the Armenian diaspora of the Middle East and was exhibited in Turkey and Iran in 2016. His documentary works “Remembering” and “Voice” were shown in IDFA under the Doc Next section. In 2021, he founded Horovel Films with Meryem Yavuz to produce documentary films.
MeryemYavuz
Meryem Yavuz was born in İstanbul, Turkey, and studied film. In 2009, she was selected for the Berlinale Talent Campus. She was accepted to the American Society of Cinematographers Vision Mentorship Program in 2020 Independent short, feature-length fiction, and documentary films for which she worked as a cinematographer were screened at Cannes, Berlinale, Venice, Toronto, Tokyo, Clermont Ferrand, Camerimage, DokLeipzig, IDFA, and many international festivals. She worked with well-known contemporary artists for their video works, and organized workshops on cinematography at film schools in Turkey. In 2021, she founded Horovel Films with Erhan Arık to produce documentary films.
Sacrifice Zones: The 48217
Located in southwest Detroit, zip code 48217 is surrounded by several polluting facilities, including what many members of the community consider their backyard polluter; a refinery. Over time, one resident has documented the air pollution through her photography. The film follows her over the course of several years as she organizes neighbors that want the refinery to buy their homes, all in an attempt to provide residents an opportunity to leave their polluted community.
Director: Ben Corona
Producer: Toni Cunningham
Stage: In Production
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Sacrifice Zones: The 48217
BenCorona
Ben Corona is an independent filmmaker that brings social justice issues into focus through an intimate lens. With an emphasis on activism through filmmaking, he uses documentaries as a device to build bridges of empathy between his participants and audience. Ben has received awards and recognition for the development of his first feature documentary, 'Sacrifice Zones: The 48217' from Firelight Media, Kresge Arts in Detroit, and The Redford Center.
ToniCunningham
Toni Cunningham is an independent filmmaker, a 2018 Kresge Arts in Detroit fellow, a mentee with the #StartsWith8Hollywood mentorship program, and the founder of Splash of Tonic Media LLC. Her first film 'Good Grief' premiered in the Detroit Voices competition of the Cinetopia Film Festival in 2019. Since then she has produced experimental, documentary, and narrative films as well as non-profit public service announcements She is currently developing two feature films, which she wrote Toni holds a Master’s degree in Media Arts and Studies from Wayne State University, where she is also an instructor of screenwriting and media storytelling.
Seeing Green
Plants are most often viewed simply as a green background for human activity For centuries dominant cultures have used nature as something to enjoy, exploit and control – ultimately endangering the conditions that make all life on earth possible. But what if we were to appreciate plants as the highly evolved creatures they actually are?
Robin Wall Kimmerer reveals how plant science framed in an Indigenous worldview can create seismic change. With her discovery that trees communicate and collaborate, Suzanne Simard is revolutionizing forestry industry practices globally. While Paco Calvo’s infectious enthusiasm for plants challenges the perception that we humans are the only intelligent life form on earth.
In this era of accelerating disasters, Kimmerer, Simard, and Calvo offer a bold new perspective that has the power to change how we see the world and our place in it.
Director: Su Rynard
Producer: Nadine Pequeneza
Stage: In Production
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Seeing Green
SuRynard
A Canadian filmmaker whose films have garnered awards and screened around the globe, Su's work is inspired by science, ecology, and the human relationship with the natural world Her recent films include Hot Docs Top Ten feature documentary THE MESSENGER (2015) and the prestigious Alfred P Sloan Feature Film Prize awardee, KARDIA (2005) Recent television documentaries include REEF RESCUE (2021) produced by MMP/FA5/Vulcan currently available through ARTE France/Germany, CBC, PBS, and NOVA and MOSQUITO (2017) produced by Yap Films for Discovery US, featuring Bill Gates and narrated by Jeremy Renner. Rynard is currently developing a feature documentary, SEEING GREEN, and is also working on a short art film THE PEA’S DREAM (forthcoming 2023) Rynard is a graduate of Ontario College of Art and was a Director resident at the Canadian Film Centre She lives and works in Toronto
NadinePequeneza
After 15 years of directing documentary features and series, Nadine Pequeneza launched HitPlay Productions in Toronto, Canada. HitPlay’s projects have garnered five Canadian Screen Awards and Nominations, one CSA win, Best Canadian Feature at the Planet in Focus Film Festival, and a Silver Gavel Award honorable mention from the American Bar Association. The company’s broadcast partners include CBC, TVO, PBS, and ARTE. Their films are distributed internationally by Off The Fence, Java Films, and ITV Global Studios HitPlay’s latest release, LAST OF THE RIGHT WHALES (2021), was awarded Best Canadian Feature at Planet in Focus THE INVISIBLE HEART (2018) was nominated for the prestigious Donald Brittain Award. Their film 15 TO LIFE: KENNETH’S STORY (2014) premiered on the acclaimed PBS series POV and received three Canadian Screen Award nominations, winning Best Writing in a Documentary. HitPlay currently has two documentary features in production AN UNFINISHED JOURNEY and SEEING GREEN and is set to release its first fiction film 1,047 DAYS (2023).
The Last Chinamperos
Just outside of Mexico City, in the canals of Xochimilco, an Indigenous father and son fight to carry on their ancestral legacy of chinampas, a Mesoamerican farming system of islands made by hand that maximize crop yields. Against an onslaught of rapid urbanization, economic challenges, and Indigenous exploitation, they persevere and show the world this vast canal system preserves a style of permaculture that has proven results in its ability to curb the global climate emergency.
Director: Megan Alldis
Producer: Patricio Buenrostro-Gilhuys
Stage: In Production
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The Last Chinamperos
MeganAlldis
Megan Alldis is a videographer and cinematographer in documentary and documentary-style commercial projects. She employs creative nonfiction methods film, photography, collage animation, and audio field recordings to create inspiring stories that celebrate humanity’s diversity and surprising interconnectedness She began her career in documentary filmmaking when studying Cinema Production and International Relations at San Francisco State University During her studies, she spent a year immersed in a Maasai homestead on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, working with the local community to document endemic gender disparity. Eventually returning to the Bay Area after working in Mexico City, she now works as an independent filmmaker full-time.
PatricioBuenrostro-Gilhuys
Patricio Buenrostro was born and raised in Mexico City After attaining his BFA in Animation at the Academy of Art University in SF, he received Best Experimental Film for his animated short “Chalma” at Kinoki 2006 He is the former Director of the Animation Bachelors Program at Universidad de Artes Digitales, in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the former Director of the Animation and Digital Arts Bachelors Programs at CEDIM in Monterrey, Mexico. He has worked with the Institute for the Future, Laboratorio para la Ciudad in collaboration with MIT Media Lab. Patricio continues animating and creating in Mexico City
The Queendom
After centuries of being ignored and even feared by scientists and the world at large, mushrooms have finally taken center stage amongst academics, entrepreneurs, investors, and especially in the popular imagination. But as the magical and profitable qualities of mushrooms become more mainstream, a crucial element of their story is being erased. Women. Specifically, indigenous women.
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Director: Otilia Portillo
Producer: Paula Arroio Stage: In Production
The Queendom
Her works include the short THREE VOICES (2012), which screened at SXSW, Ambulante, Morelia, DocsMX, Margaret Mead Film Festival, Documenta Madrid, Lima Film Festival, FIDBA Buenos Aires, and London MexFest The film was considered one of the audience favorites local documentaries for that year and had limited theatrical distribution In 2019, she premiered the short documentary BIRDERS for Netflix Otilia has participated in Berlinale Talents Doc Station (2011) and Guadalajara Talents (2011) She has been a grantee of the National Young Creator’s Fund, the Stimulus for Cinematographic Creators from the National Film Institute, and the Sundance Institute.
OtiliaPortillo PaulaArroio
Partner at Oscura Producciones, a company that specializes in documentaries about nature, history, and culture, she has worked as a history advisor and iconographic researcher for films, television, and theater Paula was the online producer of FINDING FOOTBALL (2018) and PERPETUAL PLANET MX for Nat Geo (2018). She produced NOMADS in association with the Smithsonian Channel. The film received the top prize at the 2020 Wildlife Conservation FIlm Festival and was nominated for Outstanding Cinematography at the 42nd Annual News & Documentary Emmys.
Undamming Klamath
UNDAMMING KLAMATH tells the story of how a group of indigenous communities mobilized an unlikely alliance with farmers, fishermen, conservation groups, government agencies and an electric utility to champion the largest river restoration project ever undertaken. Framed within the history of the settlement of the West, we trace the story of members of the Yurok, Karuk and Klamath tribes from the historic 2002 fish kill that catalyzed a generation to dedicate their lives to dam removal, through to the dismantling of four legacy hydroelectric dams slated for 2023/2024. Meanwhile, a vocal group of conservative politicians, ranchers and landowners continue to oppose the project, asserting that it will do more harm than good. Our film will follow through the wake of dam removal to witness whether the salmon return, and if restoration can lead to the revival of the health of the river and the communities that depend on it.
Director: Shane Anderson
Producer: Maya Craig
Stage: In Production
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Undamming Klamath
ShaneAnderson
Shane Anderson is an Emmy-nominated documentary director and producer focusing on natural history, environmental justice, river restoration, and salmon recovery in the American West. Since 2012, he has produced and directed seven feature documentaries including 'A Rivers Last Chance', 'Chehalis: A Watershed Moment,' 'The Lost Salmon,' and 'Covenant Of The Salmon People.' In addition, he has produced many short films including 'Guardians of the River,' which received the EarthX Impact Award, and 'Bring the Salmon Home,' which was a Jackson Media Award finalist Shane’s films have been distributed by PBS, Amazon, Patagonia, Outside Magazine, and Collective Eye He partners with conservation organizations to utilize his films in varied impact campaigns that have influenced policies to protect rivers, forests, and wild salmon Shane specializes in underwater cinematography and drone operation. He filmed the removal of the Nooksack Dam including a four-month timelapse shot for BBC’s Planet Earth series, and has provided footage to BBC's Our Changing Planet and the Netflix series Earthscape. He brings a background in fisheries biology, and previously to working in documentary film was a professional skier and a Hollywood stuntman.
MayaCraig
Maya is a San Francisco-based Documentary Filmmaker and freelance Director of Photography. She has been a National Geographic Explorer since 2019 looking at the global climate and geopolitical impacts of a warming Arctic As Director of Photography for Swiftwater, Maya has filmed for a number of documentaries focused on the restoration of Western landscapes including 'Guardians of the River' (EarthXFilm Impact Award 2021), 'Bring the Salmon Home' (Jackson Media Awards nominee 2022), and 'The Lost Salmon' (Emmy nominee NW 2023). She is also a DP and producer on feature documentary Laikipia, supported by Doc Society, Threshold Foundation, Sundance, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Her first documentary Water Town, about a water privatization conflict in Northern California, was broadcast nationally on PBS and helped lead to the City of Weed, CA securing its water rights after a five-year legal battle. She has directed and shot for brands like Patagonia, Google, Freethink, LA Times, CNN’s Courageous Studios, and others. Maya is a fellow at the Royal Geographical Society and holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science from Colorado College and a Master’s in Documentary Film from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism
Grantee Cohorts
AinaMomona-LandofPlenty
Directors: Sergio Rapu, Elena Rapu
AppalachianSpring
Director:EvanMascagni
Biruté Director:TobyGad
DemonMineral Director:HadleyAustin
FoodfortheRestofUs
Directors: CarolineFox,TiffanyAyalik
ForkintheRoad
Director: VivianSorenson
Harvest Director: NatalieBaszile
HollowTree Director: KiraAkerman
ImpossibleTown Directors: MegGriffiths,ScottFaris
IZ Director: JenniferAkanaSturla
ManzanarDiverted: WhenWaterBecomesDust Director: AnnKaneko
Oaklead Director: AlexJ Bledsoe
PathofthePanther Director: EricBendick
PoliceinourClimate Director: KhariSlaughter
RICO:AModernGangsterTale Directors: LindseyOfrias,EvanMascagni
RazingLibertySquare
Director: KatjaEsson
SaltSisters
Director: HeidiBurkey
SaturdayinthePark
Director: IreneKimChin
ToTheEnd
Director: RachelLears
UntitledAnnieMaeAquash
Documentary Director: YvonneRusso
TheSovereigns Director: BenjaminHuguet
WESTILLHERE/NOSTENEMOS
Director: EliJacobs-Fantauzzi
Adaptation Director:AlizéCarrère
Exposure
Director: HollyMorris
MeattheFuture Director: LizMarshall
RaisingAniya Director: JohnFiege
TheBeringGate Director: GabrielleTenenbaum
Uniontown Director: FraserJones
YouthVGov Director: ChristiCooper
BrooklynAlaska Director:EricaSterne
ColouroftheWind
Director: ClaireSanford
HowWeGrow Directors: HaleyThompson,TomasZuccareno
InventingTomorrow Director: LauraNix
NobodyLovesMe
Directors: JeffReichert,FarihahZaman
ReefsatRisk
Director: MalinaFagan,KurtVincent
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2020
2018
2016
Grants Advisors
Brenda Robinson
Partner, Gamechanger Films
Brian Newman
Founder, Sub-Genre
Cheryl Hirasa
Executive Director, Pacific Islanders in Communications
Gita Saedi Kiely
Director, FilmAid
Justin "Hoost" Wilkenfeld
CEO, Kindhumans
Lisa Kleiner Chanoff
Co-Founder, Catapult Film Fund
Megha Agrawal Sood
Director, Climate Story Unit, Doc Society
Samantha Wright
Director, Earth Alliance
Simon Kilmurry
Documentary Producer
Tracy Rector
Managing Director, Storytelling, Nia Tero
“After years of working to advocate for sustainability and protect wild places, my son James and I recognized the power of storytelling to bring light and advance these issues. We started The Redford Center to merge storytelling with action.”
Robert Redford Co-founder, The Redford Center
redfordcenter.org
