Announcing the CMG Action Grant Finalists at Jackson Hole
Conservation Media Group (CMG) & the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival (JHWFF) are excited to announce a set of 8 talented finalists in our CMG Action Grant Pitch. CMG will be awarding at least one $5,000-$10,000 grant during JHWFF for a project that uses video to create measurable action in ocean conservation or sustainable energy. Finalists attend a one-on-one pitch session with CMG commissioners in Jackson Hole on Wednesday, September 30 or October 1, 2015. The winner of at least one CMG Action Grant will be announced at the JHWFF Awards Gala on Thursday evening, October 1.
Proposed projects were required to include a theme that relates to creating change in ocean conservation or sustainable energy and a video concept under 5 minutes with a clearly defined target audience and specific call to action. Pitched projects also include a strategic plan for measuring impact in a meaningful way. The pitch was open to filmmakers, organizations and individuals with any level of experience and any project location.
The Finalists for the 2015 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival Action Grant are:
• Illuminating the Himalayas, proposal by Brett Kuxhausen
Follow the Global Himalayan Expedition; a volunteer team of sustainability experts & explorers who travel 450 miles into the Himalayas to build a solar grid for a Ladakh village that has no electricity. The film will highlight the urgency for appropriate and sustainable elementary rural village electrification, as well as serve to raise funding for those villages.
• My Future is Your Future, proposal by Sally Snow, Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines
This campaign aims to empower local people at the heart of wildlife tourism in the Philippines, as well as educate tourists by changing perspectives and inspiring respect at a crucial time in the ecotourism industry. The call to action will be support for a soon-to-be-introduced law that regulates guidelines on marine wildlife interactions.
• Faith in Solar, proposal by Michelle Benham, NC WARN
Faith In Solar is a video campaign aimed at mobilizing faith-based communities, congregations and organizations to express support for North Carolina House Bill 245, dubbed the Energy Freedom Act, as it holds the future for sustainable energy in North Carolina and sets a precedent for large, politically influential utility companies around the country.
• Protecting the Salish Sea, proposal by Jessica Plumb & Friends of the San Juans This video project is part of a larger campaign by the Friends of the San Juans to protect the Salish Sea via a “Particularly Sensitive Sea Area” (PSSA) designation through the International Maritime Organization. The new designation would limit increasing proposals to vastly increase shipping of fossil fuels through these fragile inland waterways.
• Snotbot, proposal by Adam Amir & Ocean Alliance This video project will follow two of Ocean Alliance’s world-first expeditions employing Snotbots, custom-built drones that test whale stress levels by catching the mucus ejected when a whale exhales through its blowhole. Snotbots provide essential information on whale health while not disturbing them, and the video will promote this non-invasive form of much-needed research.
• I Am Inuit, I Am Ocean, proposal by Gianna Savoie, Ocean Media Institute This video postcard series highlights the youth of three Inuit communities on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic as they battle the effects of a changing sea. Along with the Sedna Epic Expedition, OMI will teach environmental filmmaking to the Inuit youth who will use the power of their own voice to call for stauncher protections of the Arctic, through a petition on issues they deem most important to protecting their ocean environment.
•Ocean Action: Micronesia, proposal by Tony Azios, Whitney Hoot, and the Conservation Society of Pohnpei
This project focuses on ocean conservation issues and community activism on the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. Partnered with the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, the filmmakers aim to mobilize a local Pohnpeian audience, with the campaign culminating in a full-day event outside the state government’s headquarters.
• Learning from Germany, proposal by Jessica Plumb This film aims to engage a community in the U.S. northwest in the transformation of Wildpoldsried, Germany from regular town to a radical experiment in energy independence. The small german town’s initiative began as an effort to boost the economy and their community now produces five times more power than the town needs, entirely through renewable sources, and sells the rest.
Conservation Media Group distributes a limited number of Action Grants each year to catalyze the production & distribution of a short video or series of short videos with a clear and significant call to action. Find out more information about CMG Action Grants HERE.
Congratulations to the finalists! We can’t wait to meet you in Jackson Hole.
Conservation Media Group (CMG) & the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival (JHWFF) are excited to announce a set of 8 talented finalists in our CMG Action Grant Pitch. CMG will be awarding at least one $5,000-$10,000 grant during JHWFF for a project that uses video to create measurable action in ocean conservation or sustainable energy. Finalists attend a one-on-one pitch session with CMG commissioners in Jackson Hole on Wednesday, September 30 or October 1, 2015. The winner of at least one CMG Action Grant will be announced at the JHWFF Awards Gala on Thursday evening, October 1.
Proposed projects were required to include a theme that relates to creating change in ocean conservation or sustainable energy and a video concept under 5 minutes with a clearly defined target audience and specific call to action. Pitched projects also include a strategic plan for measuring impact in a meaningful way. The pitch was open to filmmakers, organizations and individuals with any level of experience and any project location.
The Finalists for the 2015 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival Action Grant are:
• Illuminating the Himalayas, proposal by Brett Kuxhausen
Follow the Global Himalayan Expedition; a volunteer team of sustainability experts & explorers who travel 450 miles into the Himalayas to build a solar grid for a Ladakh village that has no electricity. The film will highlight the urgency for appropriate and sustainable elementary rural village electrification, as well as serve to raise funding for those villages.
• My Future is Your Future, proposal by Sally Snow, Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines
This campaign aims to empower local people at the heart of wildlife tourism in the Philippines, as well as educate tourists by changing perspectives and inspiring respect at a crucial time in the ecotourism industry. The call to action will be support for a soon-to-be-introduced law that regulates guidelines on marine wildlife interactions.
• Faith in Solar, proposal by Michelle Benham, NC WARN
Faith In Solar is a video campaign aimed at mobilizing faith-based communities, congregations and organizations to express support for North Carolina House Bill 245, dubbed the Energy Freedom Act, as it holds the future for sustainable energy in North Carolina and sets a precedent for large, politically influential utility companies around the country.
• Protecting the Salish Sea, proposal by Jessica Plumb & Friends of the San Juans
This video project is part of a larger campaign by the Friends of the San Juans to protect the Salish Sea via a “Particularly Sensitive Sea Area” (PSSA) designation through the International Maritime Organization. The new designation would limit increasing proposals to vastly increase shipping of fossil fuels through these fragile inland waterways.
• Snotbot, proposal by Adam Amir & Ocean Alliance
This video project will follow two of Ocean Alliance’s world-first expeditions employing Snotbots, custom-built drones that test whale stress levels by catching the mucus ejected when a whale exhales through its blowhole. Snotbots provide essential information on whale health while not disturbing them, and the video will promote this non-invasive form of much-needed research.
• I Am Inuit, I Am Ocean, proposal by Gianna Savoie, Ocean Media Institute
This video postcard series highlights the youth of three Inuit communities on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic as they battle the effects of a changing sea. Along with the Sedna Epic Expedition, OMI will teach environmental filmmaking to the Inuit youth who will use the power of their own voice to call for stauncher protections of the Arctic, through a petition on issues they deem most important to protecting their ocean environment.
• Ocean Action: Micronesia, proposal by Tony Azios, Whitney Hoot, and the Conservation Society of Pohnpei
This project focuses on ocean conservation issues and community activism on the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. Partnered with the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, the filmmakers aim to mobilize a local Pohnpeian audience, with the campaign culminating in a full-day event outside the state government’s headquarters.
• Learning from Germany, proposal by Jessica Plumb
This film aims to engage a community in the U.S. northwest in the transformation of Wildpoldsried, Germany from regular town to a radical experiment in energy independence. The small german town’s initiative began as an effort to boost the economy and their community now produces five times more power than the town needs, entirely through renewable sources, and sells the rest.
Conservation Media Group distributes a limited number of Action Grants each year to catalyze the production & distribution of a short video or series of short videos with a clear and significant call to action. Find out more information about CMG Action Grants HERE.
Congratulations to the finalists! We can’t wait to meet you in Jackson Hole.