In Dan Lin’s documentary short Rise: From One Island to Another, two indigenous poets from the Marshall Islands and Greenland meet atop a receding glacier.
The first festival of its kind exclusively featuring storytelling around solutions, rather than simply the impacts of climate change, the Climate Action Film Fest (CAFF 2020) is a touring, single-night event featuring a 90-to-120-minute presentation of short films from around the world. In its Hudson Valley premiere, sponsored by SunCommon, it hits Upstate Films in both Rhinebeck and Woodstock this month. Proceeds from screenings are donated to local climate action groups, in our case New Yorkers for Clean Power and the Student Climate Coalition. The program screens at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 12 at the Rhinebeck location and at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 16 in the Woodstock cinema. Admission is by a suggested donation of $10 to $20, but no one will be turned away.
One of the films being featured in this, CAFF’s inaugural lineup, is Words Have Power, directed by Lynne Cherry, founder of Young Voices for the Planet, best-selling children’s author and currently a visiting scholar at the Benjamin Center at SUNY-New Paltz. Words Have Power features 10-year-old Jaysa Mellers, a girl on the front lines of climate change who stands up to a power plant – and wins. Her dynamic speeches at rallies and City Hall catalyze her community to fight the coal-fired power plant that causes her asthma, and together they shut it down. The film has already been shown locally at the Ashokan Center’s Winter Hoot and will screen there again this Thursday, February 6 as part of the Youth Empowerment & Sustainability Summit. As the Summit is already sold out, the Upstate Films CAFF screenings are your next chance to catch Words Have Power.
To learn more, visit https://suncommon.com/climate-action-film-festival. For tickets, visit www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-action-film-festival-hudson-valley-premiere-tickets-84794928915.
Climate Action Film Fest
Upstate Films
Wednesday, Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m.
6415 Montgomery St. (Rt. 9), Rhinebeck
(845) 876-2515
Sunday, Feb. 16, 1:30 p.m.
132 Tinker St., Woodstock
(845) 679-6608
$10-$20 donation
suncommon.com/climate-action-film-festival