Cape Wind: The Fight for the Future of Power in America
Grantmakers, please click the link below to request additional information about this project or to invite the project manager to submit a formal application to your foundation.
Contact the project managers >>
Website
Topics
Environment: Climate Change, Conservation, Environmental Activism, Oceans, Pollution, Renewable Energy
Human Development: Education, Energy, Fisheries, Tourism
Human Rights: Indigenous Rights
Information & Media: Communication, Knowledge, Media
Peace and Conflict: Security
Politics: Activism, Civil Society, Corruption & Transparency, Democracy, Ethics & Value Systems, Geopolitics
Project Geography
US: National, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, West Virginia
International: Europe, North America
Budget
Raised to date: $ 340,000.00
Estimate to complete: $ 200,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $ 540,000.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 07/07/2009
Status
Post Production
Media Type
Video
Project End Use
Other: TV, Theaters, Schools and in a multimedia interactive website.
Key Personnel
Robbie Gemmel
Producer, Director
Mr. Gemmel is an award-winning filmmaker focused on environmentally oriented documentaries and outreach campaigns. After graduating from Emerson College with a BA in Visual Media Arts in 2003, he took an internship on the PBS series NOVA. Mr. Gemmel then became an in-house Production Assistant and over the course of two years, worked on four full-length NOVA documentaries and twenty-seven segments of NOVA ScienceNow. The programs on which he worked received numerous awards, including an Emmy Award, AAAS Science Journalism, CINE Golden Eagle, CINE Special Jury, and a Population Institute Global Media Award for Best Documentary. He then became Associate Producer at Steven Latham Productions (SLP) in Santa Monica, CA where he helped produce Saved by the Sun, a documentary for PBS/NOVA about solar energy, and The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED, a documentary for Netflix about the annual TED Conference in Monteray, CA. Mr. Gemmel moved to Cambridge, MA last year to produce and direct a feature length documentary for the Sundance Channel about the Cape Wind project. This film and accompanying outreach campaign is currently his main focus and also the catalyst for establishing Rebirth Productions with partner, Daniel Coffin
Daniel Coffin
Producer, Writer
Daniel Coffin is an emerging young entrepreneur serving as the Operations Manager for Rebirth Companies, Inc., in addition to his various functions as a Producer of Cape Wind. Mr. Coffin graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and as the lead writer, Mr. Coffin has been instrumental in weaving the Project’s regional significance into the dual national crises of energy independence and climate change. Mr. Coffin comes to Rebirth from Development Guild/DDI, one of the nation’s leading consulting service firms for non-profit organizations. There he worked with the executive team to develop and implement internal operations protocols and administered all of the firms technology systems.
Josh Levin
Executive Producer
Mr. Levin is a film producer, marketing and distribution executive, who has been successful in bringing more than thirty feature films to the U.S. marketplace, including award winning productions from Cannes, Sundance, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, and Tribeca. Through Mr. Levin’s company, Gallant Films, Mr. Levin is serving as Executive Producer for the Project. Mr. Levin has served as Chief Marketing Officer for Film Movement, dedicated to bringing independent documentary films to the industry and the public through theatrical premieres, community discussion forums, and library screenings. Working for placement and product accessibility and addressing the needs of small, start-up films with limited budgets is Mr. Levin’s special area of expertise. Mr. Levin received his MBA from the Columbia Business School and a BA from the University of Michigan.
Funders
| Name | Amount | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LEF Foundation | $ 15,000.00 | 04/28/2009 | |
| Sundance Channel | $ 70,000.00 | 03/15/2009 | |
| Anonymous | $ 200,000.00 | 01/01/2009 | |
| Rockefeller Family Fund | $ 55,000.00 | 11/17/2007 |
Location(s)
119 Braintree St., Suite 317
Boston, MA, 02134
See Google Maps
Short Synopsis
A feature length documentary illuminating the divisive controversy of the Cape Wind Project – a proposal to build 130 massive wind towers five miles off the coast of Cape Cod in Nantucket Sound. The film translates the furor which exploded on Cape Cod into a definitive battle which will be replicated hundreds of times over as industrial-scale renewable energy projects are proposed in America’s deserts, mountains and waterways.
Description/Treatment
Cape Wind: The Fight for the Future of Power in America is a feature-length documentary about the high-stakes battle that rocks Massachusetts when entrepreneur Jim Gordon proposes a massive wind farm five miles off the coast of Cape Cod. Opposed from the outset by politicians he thought would be allies – liberals and environmentalists alike – Gordon finds his plan (130 wind turbines in the middle of Nantucket Sound, each 440 feet tall) in limbo eight years and $40 million later. The project’s fate now rests in the hands of President Obama.The film translates the furor which envelops Cape Cod into a story of national significance with critical implications for the future of America's fledgling offshore wind industry. The story is told through the perspectives of four key players and explores their inner workings, motivations, and strategies. They are Cape Wind’s Jim Gordon, Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound’s Audra Parker, Clean Power Now’s Barbara Hill and WindStop.org's Cliff Carroll -- the people in the trenches, fighting the fight, fully consumed by the struggle they endure. In addition, the film features defining interviews with powerful players, such as MA Governor Deval Patrick, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Theodore Roosevelt, IV, and Bill Koch.
Cape Wind chronicles many improbable and poignant scenes: Cliff Carroll haranguing Greenpeace activists with a bullhorn from his boat in the world's first-ever sea-protest; the reserved Barbara Hill cursing in angry frustration about the need for immediate action; the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound's CEO, Charles Vinick, earnestly defending his fossil fuel-magnate board members; Nantucket’s Reverend Eddy sermonizing about the controversy's similarity to the Civil Rights movement; and Jim Gordon, the entrepreneur who started it all, slamming a medicine ball against the wall in a downtown gym.
Banishing any chance of total resolution, Cape Wind instead employs two dialectically opposed, editorialist narrators playing the sardonic H.L. Menken archetype, injecting opposite spins into the battles as they happen – observant and wryly critical. Paradoxically, neither narrator is scripted, and, like the other characters, they have their own prerogative. Everyone has a horse in the race, and the film gives them room to run.
As the seasons change with such visual force on Cape Cod – both the leaves and the tourists disappear in October – they also play a role in setting the tone for a battle which lasts year-round and is now eight years in. The film moves sonically with the seasons, with the wind playing a vital role during all seasons, pushing sailboats, leaves and snow, and the music shifts with the changing light from tonal bleakness to exuberant, nostalgic pop. The metamorphosis Cape Cod and the Islands undergo each season is simply striking and well serves the film, emphasizing the constantly shifting polarity of this strange and beautiful place.
Fundamentally, the film is a provocative, ground-level look at how our energy future is being decided, filmed in stunning HD video. Lush land and seascapes soak up the viewer's imagination, while the subject matter challenges their notions of energy consumption and production, arguably the most significant crisis facing America.