Film Chronicles Religious Environmentalism
Renewal, produced by Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmakers Marty Ostrow and Terry Kay Rockefeller, is the first feature-length documentary film to capture the vitality and diversity of today’s religious/environmental activists. It is designed for use by clergy, congregations, teachers, theologians, community activists, environmentalists, students and families or anyone that understands the essential spiritual bond that humans hold with the Earth and is committed to building a sustainable future. The film is accompanied by a dynamic community engagement campaign with the goal to help advance the movement and to promote change.
From within their Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim traditions, Americans are becoming caretakers of the Earth. With great courage, these women and men are reexamining what it means to be human and how we live on this planet. Their stories of combating global warming and the devastation of mountaintop removal, of promoting food security, environmental justice, recycling and land preservation and of teaching love and respect for life on Earth are the heart of Renewal.
Environmental activist Bill McKibben comments, “The religious environmental movement is potentially key to dealing with the greatest problem humans have ever faced, and it has never been captured with more breadth and force than in Renewal. I hope this movie is screened in church basements and synagogue social halls across the country, and that it moves many more people of faith off the fence and into action.”
Bill Moyers concurs, “I watched this film with admiration and hope millions of others will have the chance to see it. You will be stirred to discover people of different faiths who are engaged in an exhilarating stewardship of the Earth that offers our best chance to yet save creation.”
Each story in the 90-minute film is designed to stand alone or be screened together. The eight stories in Renewalinclude: A Crime Against Creation: Evangelicals bear witness to mountaintop removal and the destruction of Appalachia; Going Green: GreenFaith, in New Jersey, helps congregations take the first steps to environmental action; Food for Faith: Muslim tradition and charity forge bonds between urban communities and sustainable farms in Illinois; Ancient Roots: The Teva Learning Center and Adamah, in Connecticut, bring environmental education together with Jewish tradition; Compassion in Action: Green Sangha, a Buddhist community in northern California, leads a campaign to save trees; Eco-Justice: The holy spirit inspires a battle against industrial contamination in small-town Mississippi; Sacred Celebration: Catholics and Native Americans embrace religious ritual in a struggle to protect New Mexico’s land and water; and Interfaith Power and Light: People of all faithsacross America mount a religious response to global warming. See ad on page 23.
For more information and to order a DVD, visit RenewalProject.net.