EPA Announces Environmental Justice Video Contest: Faces of the Grassroots

Ryan Van Lenning Mon, 1 Mar at 11:20am
EPA Environmental Justice Video Competition

Calling all local filmmakers and environmental justice advocates! The Environmental Protection Agencies "Faces of the Grassroots" Contest looks tailor-made for any number of Bay Area organizations and community groups working on environmental justice.  The videos can be 30-60 second public service announcements or 3-5 minute informational videos.  They also have a youth category, for filmmakers aged 13-18.  The contest begins today and the deadline to submit is April 8.  Winners and prizes will be announced on Earth Day and it would be great to be able to report an Oakland winner!

From the EPA website:

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is sponsoring an environmental justice video contest that challenges amateur and professional filmmakers to create videos that capture the faces of the environmental justice movement. The Faces of the Grassroots contest is an opportunity to publicly exhibit creativity, environmental justice stories, and connect with others working to raise awareness of the movement.

“Faces of the Grassroots will help EPA expand the conversation on environmentalism and work for environmental justice,” said Charles Lee, director of the Office of Environmental Justice. “Participants can make a difference for the historically underrepresented in their community by using motion pictures to show the struggles and triumphs they have endured to advance environmental justice.”

Videos can focus on any environmental justice activity, issue, or topic. Examples would be a music video about climate change, or a video recording a successful environmental justice project that has made a community a healthier and happier place to live.

Awards will be given to the winning submissions in each category. The videos will also be featured on EPA's website and may be used as public service announcements. Entries must be received by 11:59pm EST on Thursday, April 8th, 2010. EPA will announce winners in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day."

Go to EPA website for information on how to enter, prizes, and deadlines.

About Ryan Van Lenning
Ryan Van Lenning is a writer and organizer focusing on issues of social justice and sustainability. He is also passionate about food justice/urban ag, anti-militarism, and building alternative economies in resilient cities. His work appears in Ecolocalizer, Truthout, Huffington Post, Terrain: Northern California’s Environmental Magazine, and Matador Change. Prior to becoming caught in the web of Bay Area ink-slinging and activism, he taught in the Humanities Department at a community college in Ohio, where he created courses in Environmental Ethics and World Religions: Peace and Violence. He is both a hyper-localist and a globalist, a home-body and travel-addict, and a city explorer and nature aficionado, just a few of the many paradoxes with which he is afflicted. Contact him at ryan@oaklandlocal.com, follow him on twitter @vanlenning, and find more at his blogs Pull the Root, Travelin' Bones, and Rumi and the Cholo.