Directed by Cambria Matlow and Morgan Robinson and originally screened in collaboration with Rooftop Films and IFP, the film tells the story of 26-year-old Daniel Dembele, who decides to return to his homeland in Mali and start a local business building solar panels.  As it follows his progress from startup to viable business, the film touches on themes of climate change, poverty, and African self-sufficiency.  Check out the trailer:

Congratulations to Cambria and Morgan on getting their film in front of a nationwide audience! Also check out our update from March that features a 7-minute video by Morgan called “Burning In The States” focusing on the efforts of local NYC students building small-scale projects.

Get your spooky fun on this Friday at BuildItGreen!NYC’s brand-new space in Gowanus, Brooklyn! From 3-6pm, kids can stop by the BIG!NYC/GrowNYC costume swap and trade their old finery for new, plus watch family-friendly Hallowe’en films, do some eco-crafts (Solar One will be making cardboard animal masks), play games and much more!

Then at 7pm, it’s time for more adult fun at BIG’s costume fundraiser. Tickets start at just $10 and are available HERE!

BIG!NYC Costume Swap and Fundraiser
Friday October 28, 2011
Costume Swap at 3pm, Fundraiser at 6pm
69 9th Street, Brooklyn
Get directions HERE!

Well, it’s just not our year for screenings…

NY ASLA has decided to cancel tonight’s screening of Women In the Dirt. They’ll be rescheduling sometime in October in a different venue. You can find out more on their Facebook page.

Women in the Dirt is about the groundbreaking work of seven landscape architects. Their projects combine awareness of architectural and landscape principles, concern with sustainability, safety and beauty. The scope of their work ranges from private homes to vast public projects.

Through conversations with the landscape architects in their offices, or in the stunning spaces they’ve designed, the film explores each woman’s personal aesthetics and approach to their discipline. Women in the Dirt shows how these “masters of the obvious” create the sublime.

The New York chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects will be presenting this premiere screening at Solar 1 on Thursday September 15 at 7pm. Solar One is delighted to present this program- Stuy Cove Park was designed by a female landscape architect, Donna Walcavage. You can learn more about the design and construction of the Park on the Solar One website HERE.

Guest Presenter: Achva Stein, Professor & Director, Graduate Landscape Architecture Program at CUNY

Thursday September 15 at 7pm at Solar One

Rain date will be determined 24 hours in advance, if necessary.

UPDATE! We’re rescheduled Dancing In Public for the evening of Wednesday September 14! We hope to see you then!

On September 7th, Dance Films Association will host an evening of  live and cinematic works focused on “Dancing in Public”. As a part of the Solar One Green Energy Arts Festival, the evening will begin at 7:00 with a reception featuring live performance created by Rebecca Brooks, with dancers Ursula Eagly and Emily Wexler. The evening will feature a dynamic screening of several dance film shorts curated by Jennifer Edwards, Content Creator and Founder of JenEd Productions, and Christy Park, Executive Director of Dance Films Association. In creating this event, the curators focused on finding pieces that speak to various interpretations of dance and public space. Moving ‘bodies’ range from construction equipment to school children, and their dancing is carried out in spaces ranging from deserts to grocery stores to Grand Central Station. This is an event – with works by OK GO, JenEd Productions, David Hinton, and Anthony Atanasio – holds something for everyone yet promises to carry viewers on a journey through shifting landscapes and genres effortlessly. A Q&A with the choreographer and filmmakers will follow the screening.

Considering that we’re supposed to have a hurricane this weekend, we may have to cancel more than one film for the second week in a row. We are going to try and reschedule for later in the year- please check back here and on the Film page to find out what the plan is for DIRT!, Urban Roots and An Evening with Matthew Modine.

Please come tomorrow to the screening of Dirty Business,  a new film about coal.

Our speaker tomorrow night will be Lyna Hinkel from 350.org:

With a background in international children’s television and documentary film production, Lyna has a long history of environmental activism.   She is presently organizing the 350.org Moving Planet NYC climate march and rally coming Sept 24^th.

350.org is an international organization working to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis. With over 500 partners and tens of thousands of active volunteers in 192 countries, we have thus far successfully organized the two largest coordinated days of climate action in the planet’s history. This year, our third mobilization is called Moving Planet: A Day to Move Beyond Fossil Fuels and will take place on September 24.

Moving Planet NYC

Out of the 300+ events scheduled to take place from coast to coast, NYC will be home to the spotlight Moving Planet event in North America. It will consist of a bike/march and rally from Columbus Circle to the United Nations Dag Hammerskold Plaza, with participants highlighting the need to move beyond fossil fuels and asking their elected leaders to push for clean energy solutions and a fair, ambitious and binding climate treaty at COP 17 in Durban, South Africa.

Dirty Business
Friday August 26 at 7pm (film will screen between 8-8:30)
At Solar One (Map)

UPDATE! MORE THUNDERSTORMS SUNDAY NIGHT, DIRT! THE MOVIE CANCELED AGAIN

Please check back here to find out when we might be able to screen DIRT!

Due to thunderstorms on Friday, the screening of DIRT! the Movie has been postponed until TONIGHT Sunday August 21 at 7pm (film will screen around 8:30).

The summer is more than half over, and you know what that means- time for Solar One’s annual Solar-Powered Film Series! As usual, we’ll have 6 programs of (mostly environmental) features and shorts, with a few surprises and special guests thrown in. Also as usual, we’ll be partnering with the always-amazing Green Edge NYC, a social network that helps New Yorkers live more sustainably. This year’s Film Series is also sponsored by Chapin Hill Advisors, a financial planning and wealth management firm with a strong commitment to the environment. We’re excited to welcome them to the Solar One family!

Also new this year: the first week of films deal with the themes of food and urban agriculture, and we’re incredibly excited that the urban farmers of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm will be coming to Solar One and setting up a farm stand where attendees will be able to buy popcorn, snacks and produce grown right across the river in Greenpoint, Brooklyn! Eagle Street is close to Solar One’s heart not only because of their farming venture, but also for Growing Chefs, a great program that teaches schoolkids to not only grow food, but to prepare it as well.

  
Come and meet them on Thursday, Friday and Saturday August 18-20!

And now, more about the first film we’ll be screening- DIRT! the Movie:

From the website:

DIRT! The Movie–directed and produced by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow–takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells the story of Earth’s most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility–from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation.

The opening scenes of the film dive into the wonderment of the soil. Made from the same elements as the stars, plants and animals, and us, “dirt is very much alive.” Though, in modern industrial pursuits and clamor for both profit and natural resources, our human connection to and respect for soil has been disrupted. “Drought, climate change, even war are all directly related to the way we are treating dirt.”

DIRT! the Movie–narrated by Jaime Lee Curtis–brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world who study and are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with soil.

DIRT! the Movie is simply a movie about dirt. The real change lies in our notion of what dirt is. The movie teaches us: “When humans arrived 2 million years ago, everything changed for dirt. And from that moment on, the fate of dirt and humans has been intimately linked.” But more than the film and the lessons that it teaches, DIRT the Movie is a call to action.

“The only remedy for disconnecting people from the natural world is connecting them to it again.”

What we’ve destroyed, we can heal.

Speaker: Leanne Spaulding, Program Coordinator for the Western Queens Compost Initiative will talk abut the latest in compost initiatives and how YOU can get involved! Find out more about WQCI on their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/wqnscompost.

You can see trailers and get information about the entire Series HERE, and check back here in the coming days for more details about each program!

Unfortunately and once again, severe thunderstorms are headed straight for us, so we’ll be canceling the screening of Urban Roots tonight. Since we’ll be screening DIRT! on Sunday August 21, we’ll have to see about a rain date for Urban Roots.

URBAN ROOTS!

We’ve all got some urban roots, don’t we? Well, a small group of Detroit natives have discovered that their urban roots, and brought them to the center of a farming revolution! The movie, URBAN ROOTS, directed by Detroit-native Mark McInnis details the powerful story of a small group of unique individuals involved in Detroit’s inner-city agricultural movement.

The documentary from Tree Media (produced by Leila Conners and Mathew Schmid and directed by Mark Mac-Innis) the film follows the urban farming phenomenon in Detroit. Urban Roots is a timely, moving and inspiring film that speaks to a nation grappling with collapsed industrial towns and the need to forge a sustainable and prosperous future.

While it follows the inspiring stories of several agricultural programs, each story in Urban Roots is designed to address a specific issue. Not only are the organizations amazingly productive and emotionally driven, but the people tilling the soil and picking the harvest have fantastic stories to tell!

Speaker: TBA

Anyone Up For A FOOD FIGHT?

When we walk into a supermarket, we assume that we have the widest possible choice of healthy foods. But in fact, over the course of the 20th century, our food system has been co-opted by corporate forces whose interests do not life in providing the public with fresh healthy and sustainably-produced food.

Fortunately, for America, FOOD FIGHT, produced and directed by Christopher Taylor, is here to expose the nation’s tainted, conventional food system. FOOD FIGHT documents the journey of a group of political, anti-corporate, protesters – led by Alice Waters – as they voice their dissent over the conventional food system. The unintended result was the birth of a vital, local, sustainable, organic, food movement that has brought back taste and variety to our tables.

FOOD FIGHT is a fascinating look at how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement has created a counter- revolution against big agribusiness.

In addition, FOOD FIGHT empowers views to share in this revolution. We have the power through our food choices to put the culture back in American agriculture. We get three votes a day, and they don’t all have to be perfect. But if just one meal is made with a mind to the small farmer, the land, and the environment, then we can all make a huge difference, one meal at a time.

Speaker: Paula Lukats, CSA NYC Program Manager for Just Food
Paula has 15 years of experience working in community and program development in New York City and has helped groups start CSA sites for the last 6 years.

Just Food has been the leader in connecting local farms to NYC neighborhoods and communities since 1995. Our mission is to unite local farms and city residents of all economic backgrounds with fresh, seasonal, sustainably grown food.

Join Rooftop Films for another evening of short films this Friday, August 5, at 8pm.

The landscape of these films is clear in our collective memory, though we see much of it at night, in too-bright sun, while we are dreaming, or in an impossible dusk. Everything is a little off as we wander as innocents down rural backroads, across the crunchy gravel parking lots of last-stop motels, through the silence of carpeted hotel hallways, into our own apartments (did we leave the window open?), not knowing what we’ll encounter next.

These films run along a spectrum but most hover in the realm of the dark. We are at times lost, broken down. The characters recount traumas, or create them. A pulse beats throughout the films, pulling us between calm and storm. Though the program varies widely, a thread connects the films, as if the characters are cut from the same cloth, a band of outsiders plotting to take over our world.

- Sarah Palmer

Tickets are $10, available at Rooftop’s website (along with info on each film) or at the door.

PLEASE NOTE: Tonight’s scheduled screening with Rooftop Films has been postponed due to all this $#*@%$& rain.  The screening will now be held on Wednesday, May 25.  All tickets will be honored and can be purchased at the link below.

——

Rooftop Films annual Dark Toons show is coming to Solar One for the first time! 10 examples of “enjoyably evil” animation for your delectation. Get details and buy tickets on the Rooftop Films website – www.rooftopfilms.com. Tickets are only available from Rooftop Films or at the door. Rain date Wednesday May 25.

This Swedish fiction feature from 2010 follows a group of anarchist drummers as they play construction sites, banks and hospitals to create their magnum opus. Plus a live performance from the drummers in the film! Tickets are available at www.rooftopfilms.com or at the door. Rain date Wednesday May 25.

Check out the “long trailer” (please note: this scene is not in the full-length version, but it shows how awesome both the film and the live performance will be):

Last Thursday, Solar One partnered with Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Green Screens program to show Carbon Nation, Peter Byck’s climate change solutions documentary. The screening on Thursday was a phenomenal success, with a full house, a great discussion with director Peter Byck, Solar One Executive Director Chris Collins, Solar One Green Workforce Development Director Diallo Shabazz and “green hawk” Dan Nolan. Thanks to everyone who was able to come!

However, if you weren’t able to be there, you can still see Carbon Nation this week at the Cinema Village at 3:30pm and 7pm from now through Thursday February 17. You can get tickets HERE!

After Thursday, Carbon Nation is going on the road, and if you happen to live in one of the following cities, you’re in luck:

Los Angeles, CA- February 18
Austin, TX- February 25
Portland, OR- March 4
Seattle, WA- March 4
San Francisco, CA- March 11

Group tickets are available for the above screenings- please contact Jackie Papier, jackiepapier[at]hotmail[dot]com.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Green Screens program and Solar One Co-Present Carbon Nation at the Walter Reade Theater on Thursday, February 10 at 6:30pm

Screening followed by a Q&A with the director Peter Byck, Solar One Executive Director Chris Collins, Solar One Green Workforce Development Director Diallo Shabazz, and a reception.

On Thursday February 10, Solar One is proud to be co-presenting the film Carbon Nation with the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Green Screens program at the beautiful Walter Reade Theater. Carbon Nation is a film by Peter Byck that explores potential alternatives to carbon fuel from one-armed Texas cotton farmer Cliff Etheridge’s efforts to pull together an enormous wind farm, to green jobs innovator Van Jones. This inspiring film presents vital solutions to a thorny problem and in the process reveals a thriving tradition of American ingenuity.

Friends of Solar One may purchase tickets at the $9 Affiliate price, a $3 discount off the general admission price. Film Society members purchase tickets at the $7 Member price. A great bargain for a great film!

Purchase tickets online by selecting the “Affiliate” ticket type HERE.

You can use this link that goes straight to the online purchase page for CARBON NATION:
http://www.filmlinc.com/tix.php?p=22298&b=1

Or purchase in person at the Walter Reade Theater’s Box Office:
The box office opens at 12:30 PM Monday-Friday, and one half hour before the first screening on Saturday/Sunday. It closes every day 15 minutes after the start of the last show. If there are no evening screenings, the box office closes at 6pm. For more information call 212-875-5601 during hours of operation.

IMPORTANT: Please printout this page! You will need to present the printout at the Walter Reade Theater Box office to purchase tickets or redeem an online order at this discount price.

Visit FilmLinc.com for more information about Carbon Nation. http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/gs/carbonnation.html

View the trailer for the film: http://carbonnationmovie.com/

Thursday, February 10 at 6:30pm
The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street, Upper Level
Bet Broadway & Amsterdam Aves

Vanishing of the Bees , 2010, 94 mins

Vanishing of the Bees is a fascinating documentary about the mysterious disappearance of bees from beehives all around the world. The film’s aim is a better understanding of ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ (CCD), a phenomena in which honey bees abruptly abandon both their queen and brood for reasons as yet not fully known. The situation is dire and only stands to get worse and so, with that in mind, the documentary examines all scientific and environmental links to CCD. Plus a visit from some NYC beekeepers to explain the concepts of urban beekeeping!

Program will begin with a short film from Greener Media.

The 2010 Solar-Powered Film Series is sponsored by Green Mountain Energy.

*Please note that this film contains strong language, brief nudity and graphic violence. It is not suitable for young or sensitive viewers. While normally Solar One is careful to provide family entertainment, in this case we felt the special nature of the film, its artistic merit and the extraordinary method used to create it justified screening it. We thank you for understanding!*

Severed Ways, 2007, 107 mins + Out of Our Minds, 2009, 28 mins

Severed Ways trailer

Out of Our Minds music video

Filmmaker Tony Stone brings his solar-powered work to Solar One for a very special screening and performance. Severed Ways is a feature film that imagines the fates of 2 Vikings who land in North America in 1007 AD. Shot on location in Vermont with battery-powered cameras, Stone used the solar panels on the roof of his father’s house to charge the camera batteries, making these the first solar-made films we’ve ever had the good fortune to screen! Plus a Q&A  with  Stone and musician Melissa auf der Maur, who collaborated on the multimedia project Out of Our Minds, which was a Special Selection in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Plus a short film from Greener Media.

The 2010 solar-powered Film Series is sponsored by Green Mountain Energy.

Tapped, 2009, 76 mins.

Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? Stephanie Soechtig’s debut feature is an unflinching examination of the big business of bottled water. From the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car? and I.O.U.S.A., this timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water.

Speakers:

Elizabeth Royte is the author of Bottlemania- How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It; Garbarge Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash and The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of Tropical Rain Forest.

William Schwartz – Director at TapIt, a New York based initiative that aims to build a global network of businesses that volunteer to serve tap water to the public.

Buck Moorehead – Co-founder and vice-president of NYH20, a NYC- based citizens group working to protect NYS’s water from hydraulic fracturing, a toxic process to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale.

Carter H. Strickland, Jr. is the Deputy Commissioner for Sustainability, New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

Short subject: The Story of Stuff

The 2010 Solar-Powered Film Series is sponsored by Green Mountain Energy!

Trailer for A Road Not Taken

Join students from Unity College, Bill McKibben and 350.org as they ramp up their Put Solar On It campaign for world leaders to install solar panels on the roofs of their official residences on 10/10/10.  And since it’s always good to go looking for your heart’s desire in your own back yard, they’re taking one of the solar thermal panels that used to sit on the White House roof during the Carter and Reagan administrations (Reagan had the panels taken down in 1986) back to DC to ask President Obama to reinstall it as a symbol of his commitment to better renewable energy policy.

In addition to a visit from the panels, we’ll be screening the documentary about the panels A Road Not Taken when the sun goes down. Before that, we may have some speeches or we may not. There will be information on how you can become involved with 350.org and Put Solar On It. Hopefully the weather will be beautiful, so please come on over, bring a little picnic supper and stay for the movie (and some popcorn)!

You can RSVP to dina@solar1.org or via Facebook. And it’s FREE for people of all ages!

On Saturday September 11, we’ll be kicking off the 2010 Solar-Powered Film Series as the NYC stop on Rooftop Films Gasland tour.

This will be a rare ticketed event, tickets are $10 and can be purchased on the Rooftop Films website. If there are still tickets available on the day of the event, they will be available to purchase at the door. Solar One will not be selling tickets, but we’ll try and update as we get closer to the date and let people know if/when the show sells out.

Tickets are $10, available HERE!

Join DJ Trent as he freaks out to his two favorite movies:

1) David Byrne’s TRUE STORIES, starring John Goodman and Byrne, with music by Talking Heads, exploring the changing world of central Texas in 1986
and
2) Daft Punk’s INTERSTELLA 5555: THE 5TORY OF THE 5ECRET 5TAR 5YSTEM, an insane anime adventure into the year 5555 set to Daft Punk’s “Discovery,” possibly the best album ever made.

Since both movies are set to music (but avoid the awful cliches associated with, you know, musicals) it will also be a dance party with $2 Brooklyn Beer all night long. If you can’t make it in person, join the fun from home with live audio/video broadcasts at 91.1fm and wfmu.org.

Yet another event collaboration with our good friends at Rooftop Films, we’ll be screening the Sundance award-winning satirical drama Sweet Mud, a story about a young man and his mentally-troubled mother set on an Israeli kibbutz in 1974. While the kibbutz movement is often depicted in a sentimental, idealized way, this film has earned kudos for showing a different side. Co-presented with IFC and the Consulate General of Israel, this event celebrates the 100th anniversary of the kibbutz movement in Israel.

For more information and to RSVP, please visit http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/17-sweet-mud. Solar One will not be able to accept RSVPs for this event.

Sunday June 20, 2010 at 8pm at Solar One
8:30pm Live Music by Hank & Cupcakes
9:00pm Film begins
10:30pm Free drinks courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner