Renewal

Images

GreenFaith, an environmental interfaith organization in NJ, helps houses of worship to "go green."

Document

YOu_Tube_Trailers.doc

Website

http://renewalproject.net/

Topics

Environment: Atmosphere, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environmental Activism, Forests, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Rivers, Soils
Health: Disease/treatment
Human Development: Agriculture, Children, Education, Energy, Food, Land, Poverty, Water/Sanitation, Youth
Human Rights: Civil Rights, Religion
Information & Media: Communication, Internet, Science
Politics: Activism, Ethics & Value Systems

Identity Niches

African American, Caucasian, Children, Indigenous, Islamic, Jewish, Native American, Religious, Student, Youth/Teen

Budget

Raised to date: $750,000.00
Estimate to complete: $92,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $842,000.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 12/20/2008

Status

Distribution

Media Type

Video

Project End Use

Other: Renewal will be seen on many public television stations, is being screened by community groups (religious and secular) across the country, is being shown at film festivals, environmental and religious conferences and in many educational settings.

Key Personnel

Marty Ostrow
Producer Director
MARTY OSTROW has been a producer, writer and director for public, commercial and cable television for more than 25 years. His award-winning films include the acclaimed 90-minute documentary "America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference," for the PBS series The American Experience. In addition to history, Marty has made many films about science, for NOVA, PBS's Discover the World of Science, and the Discovery Channel. He was the producer of two hours in the ground-breaking documentary series Race to Save the Planet, the first large-scale PBS effort to bring environmental issues to national consciousness. Marty's work is known for the intimate portrait style he brings to his subjects. His public television films about the arts have earned him three Emmy Awards. Marty's films have been seen in festivals around the world.

Terry Kay Rockefeller
Producer Director
TERRY KAY ROCKEFELLER has over 25 years experience producing and executive producing award-winning documentaries for PBS. She was a member of the team that created the long-running science series, NOVA. Terry also produced episodes of ODYSSEY, which told anthropological and archaeological stories; The Ring of Truth with MIT professor Phil Morrison; Eyes on the Prize, the celebrated history of America's civil rights struggles; and The Great Depression. She was series producer of America's War on Poverty, and I'll Make Me a World, an examination of African-American arts in the 20th century; and executive producer of Hopes on the Horizon a feature-length documentary produced with a largely African production team. Terry was also executive project manager of On Common Ground, a CD-ROM documenting the religious diversity of present-day America, produced with Harvard professor Diana Eck.

Peter Rhodes
Editor
Not available.

Outreach/Engagement Plan(s)

The budget raised to date, as indicated in this profile ($750K) refers to production funding only. Unfortunately there has been zero budget for promotion and distribution of the film that is now completed. Our challenge today is to remedy the difficult challenge of taking Renewal, a proven effective tool for change, to the widest possible national and international audience. We have designed a promotion campaign to accomplish this -- which will both raise the visibility of the film and more importantly, spur the developing religious environmental movement. The funding we seek is in the area of $92K.

To date, Renewal has been screened at educational conferences, film festivals, as the select offering of a monthly cinema club about earth concerns, as an effective tool for inspiring environmental action in houses of worship across the country, as part of the Humane Society of the United States' All Creatures Great and Small Campaign, and in many other instances.

Working with Active Voice, our community engagement partner in San Francisco, Renewal is in the early stages of connecting with a vast religious and secular public that will be able to use the film to promote change and inspire action for a sustainable future.

After beta testing the documentary with more than 50 partners across America, Renewal has proven its effectiveness as a tool for encouraging change in local communities. Now the challenge is to bring the film to the widest possible public attention so that its promise as an inspiring instrument of change may be fulfilled.

Currently a small grant from the Carpenter Foundation is being used to design educational materials created by Active Voice, the Renewal producers and Auburn Seminary (Auburn Media) that will eventually be used by seminaries across the nation to teach future clergy and religious leaders about the values of religious-environmentalism.

Broadcasts on many public television stations this spring, via American Public Television with WGBH as the presenting station, will help raise the profile of the film and bring it to a wider audience that can put it to good use.  Presently, there are no marketing funds to support these broadcasts.

From the beginning it’s been our goal to raise national consciousness about religious-environmentalism – and to spur grassroots action for a sustainable future. As much as any other single force in American society, religions hold the potential to address profound environmental concerns and inspire far-reaching change in how we live.

Now, we are seeking crucial funding for a Renewal Promotion and Distribution Campaign, to accelerate, amplify and complete the successes we’ve already begun to have in connecting Renewal with the public.

The Promotion and Distribution Campaign that we envision will capitalize on the Public Television broadcast of Renewal to increase knowledge of the film among environmental activists both religious and secular, get the documentary into the hands of more people whose work will profit from sharing the stories that Renewal tells, and build the religious-environmental movement through traditional and on-line press coverage, along with strategic public events in key cities.

Funders

Location