The Winners

Greenpeace USA is excited to announce the winners from the first Student Film Contest.  Our goal was to reward and showcase the best short films on local climate change stories from student filmmakers  across the United States.   We received over 500 entries and are proud to recognize these top films, chosen by our esteemed judges.

Ballad of Holland Island House by Lynn Tomlinson- 1st Place Winner

Say judges Tia Lessin and Carl Deal: “Totally mesmerizing, thoughtful and immersive piece that relies on emotion to make clear the consequence of inaction. Can watch it over and over again!

A $73 Million Dollar Industry by Kathryn Boyd-Batstone- 2nd Place

Sea Ice Secure directed by Sarah Betcher- Honorable Mention

I of The Storm directed by Brian Adamkiewicz – Finalist

The Boats of Jamaica Bay by Gary Bencheghib – Finalist

In addition, the video team at Greenpeace USA chose Provo Haze (directed by Jesse Myrick and James Myrick) as Best film on a general environmental theme.

March 25th.   A $500 cash prize and an all expense paid trip to the premiere will be awarded to Lynn Tomlinson the director of  Ballad of Holland Island House. Watch this space for how you can see these fantastic films online.

Judges Panel

Carl Deal & Tia Lessin (directors and producers) are Academy Award®-nominated directors and producers of Trouble the Water, winner of the Gotham Independent Film Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Full Frame Documentary Festival. They also were co-producers of Fahrenheit 9/11, and Capitalism: A Love Story. Carl previously worked as an investigative journalist and international news producer and has contributed to many documentaries. In television, Tia line-produced Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, and she received the Sidney Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for Behind the Labels, a film she directed about labor trafficking in the US garment industry. Her work as a producer for the acclaimed series the Awful Truth won her two Emmy nominations, and one arrest. Trouble the Water was included in the top ten lists of The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, and the LA Times in 2008, and is still used by dozens of institutional partners to create dialogue and inspire action.

Keya Chatterjee is a Senior Director for Renewable Energy and Footprint Outreach at the World Wildlife Fund. Her commentary on climate change policy and sustainability issues has been quoted in dozens of media outlets, including USA Today, the New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and NBC Nightly News. She has also served as a Climate Change Specialist at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and worked at the NASA Earth Science Enterprise. She lives in Washington DC with her husband and son.

Caty Borum Chattoo is a documentary producer and media strategist who works at the intersection of media and storytelling, research, and social-impact public affairs campaigns. She is currently Executive in Residence at American University’s School of Communication and Creative Director at the Center for Media & Social Impact in Washington, D.C.; Executive Producer of “Stand Up Planet,” a social impact documentary that premiered on Participant Media’s Pivot network in 2014; and a consultant to Participant Media for media-impact research and public affairs. Caty has produced two feature theatrical films, multiple half-hour TV specials, a documentary TV series, PSA campaigns and more. She was a Senior Vice President in behavior-change communication at FleishmanHillard International Communications. In Los Angeles, she worked with TV/film producer, Norman Lear, as a producer and project director. She also served as Special Projects Director & Senior Producer at the USC Norman Lear Center, and as a Program Officer in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Entertainment Media & Public Health program. Caty holds a master’s degree in communication from the University of Pennsylvania (Annenberg School for Communication), and she has completed coursework toward the MFA in film from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Chico Colvard is a filmmaker and lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he also founded and curates the UMB Film Series. His award-winning doc, FAMILY AFFAIR, premiered at Sundance and has broadcast on the Oprah Winfrey Network: OWN and other cable channels around the world — including Rialto New Zealand, RTÉ TV Ireland, Stern TV Germany, Denmark and Israel. He is a former Sundance Creative Producing Fellow, Flaherty Fellow, Firelight Media Producing Fellow, and Filmmaker-in-Residence at WGBH. He has received funding from the Ford Foundation, LEF Moving Image Fund, Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, and Vital Projects Fund. Chico is a frequent guest speaker at colleges and universities, moderator, film festival panelist and juror.