Solar Powered Film Series

The annual Solar Powered Film Series is back again, with even more jaw-dropping, eco-friendly films, guaranteed to make you wanna reduce, reuse, recycle and more! Check out what filmmakers on the front lines of the green revolution have been up to, with information about the environmental challenges and solutions humanity faces in the 21st century!

Green Edge NYC and Solar One have teamed up for the fourth year in a row to bring New Yorkers free outdoor films for two weekends this summer — August 18th, 19th & 20th and August 25th, 26th, & 27th. The 2011 Solar-Powered Film Series brings another round of exceptional films to Stuyvesant Cove Park, and we are happy to welcome Chapin Hill Advisors as the Series’ sponsor.

The first week’s selections will focus on food and urban agriculture, definitely one of the hottest environmental topics around! Along with films about dirt, the new urban farming movement and the genesis of the local food craze, we’ll be hosting our friends from Eagle Street Rooftop Farm with a farm stand of fresh Brooklyn-grown treats, along with speakers from the Lower East Side Ecology Center, Build It Green and Just Food- what a delicious and informative weekend!

The second week will be more eclectic, starting with an evening with local bicycle activist and Friend of Solar One Matthew Modine, who will be showing a selection of his own short films; continuing with Dirty Business, and expose of the “clean coal” myth; and ending with Home, a beautiful and inspiring look at our one and only planetary home through gorgeous aerial photography and historical/evolutionary narration by Glenn Close.

2011 Solar-Powered Film Series Week 1

August 18  UPDATE! DIRT! Rescheduled for Sunday August 21 at 7pm Check this page for new screening dates for DIRT!, Urban Roots and An Evening with Matthew Modine

We’ve had very bad luck with the weather during the 2011 Solar-Powered Film Series, but we’re determined to screen all six films before the weather gets too cold! Please check here, on the Solar One homepage or in our newsletter (sign up here!) to find out when we’ll be able to reschedule these screenings.

DIRT! The Movie (2009, 86 mins)

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. Narrated by Jaime Lee Curtis.

August 19 Urban Roots, (2011, 90 mins) Postponed until further notice- but we are rescheduling this screening! Please check back soon for new date.

Urban Roots Trailer from Tree Media on Vimeo.

Produced by Leila Conners (The 11th Hour) and Mathew Schmid and directed by Mark MacInnis, 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.

August 20 Food Fight (2008, 83 mins)

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.

2011 Solar-Powered Film Series Week 2

August 25 An Evening with Matthew Modine  Postponed until further notice- but we are rescheduling this screening! Please check back soon for new date.

Matthew Modine is a political activist and a passionate environmentalist. He is the founder of Bicycle For A Day (BFAD), a global initiative focused on promoting the use of bicycles for transportation to reduce carbon emissions and their poisonous effect on the environment. “Bicycling is one thing each of us can do that has an immediate positive impact on the environment. It also helps reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.”

In addition to being an internationally renowned actor, Matthew is also a filmmaker, writer and photographer. In fact, three of the selections in the Film Series- When I Was a Boy, Smoking and Ecce Pirate- have debuted at Sundance before being screened at Film Festivals the world over. He has worked with many of the film industry’s most acclaimed directors on projects including Birdy, Full Metal Jacket, Married to the Mob, Shortcuts and Showtime’s Weeds. He has been nominated for multiple Emmys and is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup and Golden Lion for his work as an actor. Matthew is currently filming Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.

In addition to all this (does the man never sleep?), Matthew is also currently developing an iPhone/iPad app of his award-winning hardcover book “Full Metal Jacket Diary”, which is exactly what it sounds like. Learn more about this way-cool project at www.fullmetaljacketdiary.com.

Matthew will be introducing and answering questions about his short films, as well as signing posters and other memorabilia after the screening.

When I Was a Boy (1993, 5 mins)
Written, edited, and produced by Matthew Modine
Directed by Matthew Modine and Todd Field

“When I was a boy, the kids would tease and abuse me. They made me think I was weak. But I knew I had strength.” Some boys grow up to be men and some things never change. This is the first short film co-directed by Matthew Modine and Todd Field (In The Bedroom, Little Children) for their production company, Mercury Film.

Smoking (1995, 14 mins)
Produced and directed by Matthew Modine
Written and narrated by David Sedaris

Matthew Modine directed this short film based on the diary of writer/humorist David Sedaris (originally produced for National Public Radio by Ira Glass). The story follows a man trying to enjoy his smoking habit in a world that no longer tolerates it. The film humorlessly examines freedoms of behavior and personal choice.

Ecce Pirate (1996, 21 mins)
Starring Chris Masterson, Richard Leaf, and Rex Linn
Written, photographed, and directed By Matthew Modine

A young boys life is changed when he’s kidnapped by sea pirates. A prisoner on board their ship, he learns to accept that his life will never be the same. As he grows older and wiser he becomes ECCE PIRATE, king of all he chooses to reign!

To Kill an American (2005, Color) – 4 min.
Written and directed by Matthew Modine

There are people in the world that don’t like Americans. There are people in the world that want to kill Americans. This film is designed to help those would be killers identify an American. So they know exactly what an American is.

I Think I Thought (2007, 7 mins)
“Hey, I think if you think you’re thinking too much, you probably are!”

Joe is a thinker in a world that doesn’t tolerate analytical thinking. His wife, boss, and friends threaten to divorce, fire, and abandon him if he doesn’t stop thinking so much. Luckily, Joe discovers “Thinkers Anonymous” where he learns that “we need those special people from television news and especially our government to tell us how to think. They know what’s best for us, and the world.” Matthew Modine wrote, co-produced, directed, and stars in this sardonically humorous short film co-produced and shot by Adam McClelland and edited by Terence Ziegler. I Think I Thought was released in 2008 and is available to download from the iTunes Store.

Jesus Was A Commie (2011, Trailer)
Matthew Modine’s new avant-garde short film premieres this October at the Hamptons International Film Festival. The film is co-directed and edited by Terence Ziegler and produced by Adam Rackoff. To learn more about the film, visit www.jesuswasacommiefilm.com.

August 26 Dirty Business (2010, 90 mins)

Can coal ever really be made “clean”? If we were to try to wean ourselves off coal, how would we keep the lights on? Is renewable energy ready for prime time?

Speaker: Lyna Hinkel, 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 24th.

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.

August 27 Home (2009, 93 mins)

Over the past 200,000 years, humans have upset the balance of planet Earth, a balance established by nearly 4 billion years of evolution.  Through visually stunning footage from over 50 countries, all shot from an aerial perspective, Yann Arthus-Bertrand shows us a view of our world that most of us have never seen.

On the shoreline of the East River and with a sweeping view of the Manhattan skyline, Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is a 6,000 square foot green roof organic vegetable farm located atop a warehouse rooftop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.During New York City’s growing season, the farmers at Eagle Street Rooftop Farm supply a community supported agriculture (CSA) program, an onsite farm market, and bicycle fresh produce to area restaurants.

In partnership with food education organization Growing Chefs, the rooftop farm hosts a range of farm-based educational and volunteer programs.  We are open to the public on Sundays (44 Eagle Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn) between 9am-4pm.

Solar One, the City’s first solar-powered “Green Energy, Arts, and Education Center,” inspires New Yorkers to become environmentally responsible city dwellers. We do this through a variety of unique programs that seek to reach out to broad sections of the New York City population in order to connect people to the urban environment around them.

Green Edge NYC is a social network that connects people with businesses, organizations and the resources they need to build an environmentally sustainable future. Green Edge Collaborative is a project of the Open Space Institute, Inc., a nonprofit public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c) 3 and 509 (a) 1 of the Internal Revenue Code.

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