Filmmakers Collaborative

We have teamed up with Filmmakers Collaborative SF to create a documentary film and media project, built around the future of California's kelp forests, and the communities that have been impacted by their decline. The money from this fundraiser will be put directly into the production of The Last Forests film, rental equipment, and chartering vessels to bring the viewer the most stunning underwater footage, along with the stories of divers, fishermen, and indigenous tribes. The first $300 will be given directly to the Greater Farallones Association, which is taking direct action in this issue with their 2019 Bull Kelp recovery plan. 

We are deeply rooted in the community and are working closely with the Greater Faralonnes Association, KELPRR, and other important stakeholder groups to directly help kelp restoration in Northern California. More than just a documentary, we want to create a movement supporting the direct action being taken to protect the last of California's underwater forests.

Covid-19 has drastically changed all of our lives, and like so many of you, we have lost our jobs in this difficult time. We know just how important finances are, and for most of us, every penny counts right now. But we also know that it is in times like this, we are able to look inward and remind ourselves of what is most important in the world around us. For filmmakers Marco Mazza and Stevie Page, what matters most is family, friends, and the ocean. It is for this reason that we started this journey to help protect our kelp forests, and it is for this reason that we are going to finish this journey despite what Covid-19 has done to our economy. If you feel a similar way, we urge you to donate what you can to help us complete this film, and if that isn’t a possibility, we urge you to follow our journey on social media and help spread the word about this project.

https://www.instagram.com/the_last_forests_project/
thelastforestsproject.com

FILMMAKERS COLLABORATIVE SF IS A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION WITH A MISSION TO PRODUCE COMPELLING FILMS AND CAMPAIGNS THAT ENGAGE AUDIENCES IN MATTERS OF CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND ENVIRONMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE.

Please help us produce a television documentary with great relevance for our time and honor the memory of environmental champion Stewart Udall!

See a sample here: https://vimeo.com/491417423

Contribute today! Your contribution will help make possible the final research and filming for STEWART UDALL AND THE POLITICS OF BEAUTY, a look at the remarkable Interior Secretary whose fingerprints can be found on nearly all of the most significant environmental legislation Americans now take for granted.

The film will showcase a time when the environmental movement came of age, when our leaders did not shy from confronting major problems, and perhaps most importantly in our polarized time, when a spirit of respect and bipartisanship prevailed in American government.

It will highlight the value of clean air and water, nature, beauty, and parks to our collective quality of life and inspire in young viewers the kind of life of public service, thoughtful patriotism, and civic courage that Stewart Udall exemplified.

Stewart Udall was America’s most effective Interior Secretary and political advocate for environmental protection. But he was also a “Renaissance man” whose broad interests and advocacy included the arts, poetry, racial justice, world peace, government transparency and bipartisanship, history and the sustainable development of cities. He challenged the American love affair with consumerism, advocating quality of life over quantity of goods.

THE FILM
Stewart Udall and the Politics of Beauty (working title), will be an hour-long biography for PBS (perhaps as part of The American Experience series), produced in cooperation with Arizona Public Television. It will follow the trajectory of Udall’s life from his Mormon childhood in the tiny hamlet of St. John’s, Arizona, through his World War II service in Europe, and his student years at the University of Arizona where he played basketball and fought for integration. The film will document Udall's years in Congress, as Secretary of the Interior under presidents Kennedy and Johnson and his long struggle to win justice and compensation for Navajo uranium miners and the “downwinders” who got cancer from their exposure to radiation and atomic testing. Finally, we explore his final fight against global warming and his last inspiring years in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You’ll meet many of the people who knew Udall well and can shed ample light on his multi-faceted life and personality, including family members.

WHY A FILM, AND WHY NOW?
A film about the life of Stewart Udall is long overdue.  A PBS documentary about the former Interior Secretary will reveal in depth that period during the sixties and seventies when the environmental movement in America grew into adulthood, showcasing the stories and victories with which Udall was intimately connected.  Perhaps more importantly, in our now deeply partisan environment, it will reveal a time when Americans were not yet so polarized, when big ideas could still capture bipartisan attention.  This film must be made now. Many of the people who knew Udall best are now well along in years and may not be able to tell their stories in the future.

Our film will cost more than $300,000 to produce, promote and distribute. We will be seeking most of that funding from foundations, Humanities endowments and other sources. But some of these grants will be late in coming. We began filming in October, but we need funds now to complete filming and meet other immediate needs. Please give generously and share this with your friends and with listservs you may be part of. Thank you!

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?
Most importantly, you’ll be helping tell the inspiring history young Americans need to learn to help solve the problems our country faces. Contributions of more than $1,000 will be acknowledged in the film’s credits and all contributions will be listed on our Website. We’ll also send you a password-protected link to the film when it’s complete.

OUR PRODUCTION TEAM
Our production team includes: PBS veteran John de Graaf, director of the hit PBS special, AFFLUENZA and 40 other documentaries including fifteen national PBS specials; former Reuters reporter Zélie Pollon; Western historian and a producer of the PBS biography of Frederick Law Olmsted, Laurence Cotton; and multiple Emmy-winning photographer and editor Greg Davis.

Our fiscal sponsor is Filmmakers Collaborative in San Francisco, a non-profit organization with a mission to produce compelling films and campaigns that engage audiences in matters of cultural, social and environmental significance.

Please also see our Facebook page for more information.