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Encouraging Environmental and Media Literacy
Cultivating youth leadership
We explored new methods of engaging with educators, students, and organizations through our Youth Stories program in 2022, expanding access to our curriculum by extending eligibility to high school students and after-school programs and translating lesson plans into Spanish As a result, 136 educators from 34 states and 12 countries accessed our curriculum, and 150 students across seven US states together created 84 environmental films and submitted them to our Youth Stories Challenge.
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Recognizing the new generation of environmental storytellers inspired by this program, in October, digital science publication Nautilus featured an interview with Stories Challenge winners these winners also engaged in an environmental filmmaking conversation with youth from the Scottish Youth Film Foundation and grand prize winner J.B. Brown served as a guest judge for the Scottish Youth Film Festival Youth Film Contest. The 2022 Stories Challenge Highlights Reel is on view at California Academy of Sciences, and three of the award-winning films were virtually exhibited in fall 2022 at the Imperial Valley Desert Museum
Honoring and restoring our connection to nature
In collaboration with IF/Then, we held the 2022-23 Nature Connection Pitch an open-call competition for short documentary films on humanity’s connection with nature. From 65 submissions up 67% from 2021 five selected projects were invited to participate in a pitch forum and workshop series at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in February 2023 Selected projects received a combined $25,000 in production grants along with career-building training to share their stories of nature connection and reconnection with the world 2021 IF/Then Nature Access Pitch Grand Prize Winner, BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY, also premiered at Big Sky this year, winning Best Documentary Short.
“For our research to have impact, we have to make our research as accessible as possible. I think what The Redford Center is doing, utilizing short films to convey research findings, I think that’s very important and will make connections and certainly benefit the research community to make sure their work is relevant and impactful.”
Dr. Yingling Fan
Featured in ʻCommunity Power Minnesota: Transportation and Happiness’
