FEBRUARY 23, 2018 – The feature-length documentary film, “HAPPENING: A Clean Energy Revolution,” will be awarded Best Environmental Film at the fifth annual New York WILD Film Festival. The festival ran through Sunday, Feb. 25th. WILD is the first-of-its-kind annual documentary film festival in New York to showcase a spectrum of topics ranging from exploration and adventure, to wildlife, conservation and the environment, bringing all things WILD to one of the most urban cities in the world. “HAPPENING” was screened on Sunday at The Explorers Club in New York City. Following the screening, David Kanter, assistant professor of environmental studies at NYU hosted a Q&A with “HAPPENING’s” award-winning director and star, James Redford.
In “HAPPENING,” filmmaker James Redford embarks on a colorful personal journey into the dawn of the clean energy era as it creates jobs, turns profits, and makes communities stronger and healthier across the U.S. Unlikely clean energy entrepreneurs in communities from Georgetown, Texas to Buffalo, N.Y. reveal pioneering clean energy solutions while Redford’s discovery of how clean energy works, and what it means at a personal level, becomes the audiences’ discovery too. Reaching well beyond a great story of technology and innovation, “HAPPENING” explores issues of human resilience, social justice, embracing the future and finding hope for our survival.
“My goal in making ‘HAPPENING’ was to show this profound economic and cultural revolution that’s starting to unfold,” states Redford, honored that “HAPPENING” has been awarded Best Environmental Film. “It’s going to change the way we move ourselves around and the way we power our homes. It’s good news. It’s just starting to happen and the more people who know about it, the more quickly we can transition to a healthier and more sustainable clean energy future.”
“HAPPENING” premiered on HBO in December 2017 and is an original production of The Redford Center where Redford is chairman and co-founder with his father, Robert Redford. The Redford Center is a non-profit that harnesses the power of film, video and new media to engage people through inspiring stories that galvanize environmental action. In addition to “HAPPENING,” The Redford Center has produced other documentary projects including “WATERSHED: Exploring a New Water Ethic For the New West,” “FIGHTING GOLIATH: Texas Coal Wars,” and “THE ART OF ACTIVISM” series of shorts.