FC and Globe Docs Join Forces for Sustainability Week Event, April 25

April 19, 2024

Filmmakers Collaborative and GlobeDocs are combining efforts to celebrate Sustainability Week with a free, in person screening at Cinema Salem in Salem, MA, of the feature documentary, CANARY, and short film THE CHELSEA COOL BLOCK. Doors open at 6 PM; screenings begin at 6:30 PM. A Q&A with directors from both films immediately follows.

Danny O’Malley, the co-director, of CANARY, which tells the story of the extraordinary life of Dr. Lonnie Thompson, an explorer who went where no scientist had gone before and transformed our idea of what is possible. Daring to seek Earth’s history contained in glaciers atop the tallest mountains in the world, Lonnie found himself on the frontlines of climate change—his life’s work evolving into a salvage mission to recover these priceless historical records before they disappear forever. 

Late last year, Danny and his co-director, Alex Rivest, joined us on the Making Media Now podcast to talk about the film. Here’s what Danny had to say about why he was attracted to telling Dr. Lonnie Thompson’s story:

“..Lonnie always talks about his youth in West Virginia, and he grew up in coal country. So he’d listen to the miners talk. And one thing that I think we’re all familiar with is people brought canaries into the mine. And when the canary died, it meant there was gases that could kill you. There was something bad happening and you needed to get out. At the heart of this film, there’s all these warnings.

Lonnie is a climate scientist who is warning the world about climate change. His doctor tells him he needs a heart transplant. And there’s this question of will we respond when we’re warned or will we find out the hard way?

My whole thing with documentaries is you wanna find a character and a story where you don’t have to put spin on the ball. Working in documentary television, there’s a lot of half-baked ideas and things where people pitch something but the story’s not there and it’s heartbreaking to work on. So I’m just always looking for a story where you just find out what happens and you’re like, this already feels like a movie like this already.

We have a hero, we have stakes, and there’s something that it’s trying to tell us the story. And then the job becomes how do you bring out the truth, bring out the power, and bring out the universal feelings of that story so that everyone feels it.”

Joining Danny O’Malley at the April 25 event in Salem, MA will be Yari Wolinsky of Turnaround Films. Yari will be presenting a locally-produced short called “The Chelsea Cool Block,” and he recently chatted with us about the origins of Turnaround Films and the premise of his short film.

Can you say a bit about the origins and mission of Turnaround Films?

In 2020, my father and I, as Trillium Studios Film, were approached by a family member who wanted to support the production of films about climate change. He’d done well in real estate development, almost always on the other side of the table from environmental groups, but had a “turnaround” moment where he realized how serious the problem is and wanted to help do something about it.

Our film and photo producing history covers a lot of ground, but we had never touched on climate change before.  We looked at the breadth of films being made and saw that there were many good and important films, but for the most part, they tackle climate change at a global or national scale.  We, at least, had trouble really connecting with the problems and always felt daunted and depressed by what could possibly be done.

What became the mission of Turnaround Films was to create short films that focused on what individuals and groups were actively doing in their communities to mitigate or adapt to climate change and other environmental problems.  We started filming in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic and that kept our first stories tied to New England and Massachusetts.  We tell stories that show how the solutions can be local and human scaled and that often the efforts of a determined person or a coalition of groups can make big changes.

What would you like to share about “The Chelsea Cool Block” that might entice folks to want to see it?

Cities are hot.  Pavement, black roofs, lack of trees, traffic, and industry all create and hold heat.  As the climate warms, our cities are going to get hotter.  This is especially bad in low income communities like Chelsea, just north of Boston, where there is a struggle to pay for air conditioning at home and getting to work can mean waiting for public transportation on streets super-heated by cars and buses.  There are many proven ways to mitigate this, but they are complicated to organize and expensive to actually put into place.

What first caught our ear about the Chelsea Cool Block project was that this was an effort being organized by multiple groups: researchers from BU’s School of Public Health, activists from the GreenRoots social and environmental justice nonprofit, administrators from the city, and residents of Chelsea.  Studies had found where the hottest place is in the city and this alliance worked quickly to raise funds and implement as many solutions as they possibly could.  Their goal was to improve the lives of the residents there now and in the future, and if they could learn from the process and the results, all the better.