Calling All Agencies, Coastal Planners & Ports

We’d like to offer Ocean Frontiers to you, for free, to show within your agency, department or office. The film is available in several lengths, including 22-minutes, 60 and 80, to accommodate different audiences and time frames. We also provide a Screening Toolkit with helpful tips and are available to assist with tasks, such as making Posters and Email Invitations for your screening(s).

You can obtain the film for free by filling out our Host a Screening Form or by sending us a message with your address and which lengths you’d like.

We’ve had a tremendous response from agencies, coastal planners and ports around the nation who are using Ocean Frontiers to help build awareness about ocean planning. From Florida to Washington—from state planning departments to port commissioners—people are sharing Ocean Frontiers with staff and colleagues at Brown Bag Lunch Screenings, Strategic Planning meetings, Advancement Trainings and so forth.

What are people saying about Ocean Frontiers?

Ocean Frontiers is an ideal film for us to see because it highlights how industry and government can work together and find solutions to pressing ocean issues.”
-Rebecca Owen, U. S. Dept. of State, Regional Policy Coordinator, Bureau of Oceans

Ocean Frontiers illustrates the kind of science-based, collaborative, locally driven solutions that the National Ocean Council will support through the National Ocean Policy.”
-Deerin Babb-Brott, Director, National Ocean Council

East Coast Tour, a Success

People filled the New England Aquarium IMAX Theatre for the
East Coast Premiere of Ocean Frontiers

April is a busy month for the Ocean Frontiers film—from three East Coast premieres back-to-back during the first week of this month to the several West Coast premieres set for next week—we are delighted to share the film with so many communities across the nation.

Ocean Frontiers features exciting, success stories from the frontiers of ocean conservation, and we are finding folks are hungry to hear them. We are often faced with environmental challenges, yet are not presented with the tools to move forward. Ocean Frontiers brings to light the need for smart, collaborative ocean planning, and clearly conveys the solutions to a plethora of ocean and coastal issues that planning can provide.

We kicked off the East Coast tour on April 3rd at the New England Aquarium—a beautiful setting overlooking Boston Harbor. This Boston Premiere was held in conjunction with the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary’s 20th Anniversary. Stellwagen Bank is a home to the endangered North Atlantic right whale, of which there are only an estimated 350-550 left in the world. This free celebration packed the IMAX Theatre with over 350 individuals who care deeply their ocean. Thanks to the New England Aquarium, Massport, Conservation Law Foundation and Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary for co-hosting!

The very next morning we attended the release of an exciting new, free iPhone/iPad Application called WhaleALERT. This application is designed to help protect the North Atlantic right whale. WhaleALERT came to life out of an early partnership of “unlikely allies” who teamed up in 2007 to reduce the rate of whale strikes by ships. This partnership resulted in the first port in the nation to move shipping lanes to protect marine mammals. This story of the moving of Boston’s shipping lanes is featured in Ocean Frontiers—view the video clip here—so, we were especially excited to be a part of the unveiling of the WhaleALERT application—another step in protecting the these magnificent creatures and the ocean we all depend upon.

That same evening, US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island—an ocean champion—kicked off the Rhode Island premiere of Ocean Frontiers at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography Bay Campus. The entire Rhode Island congressional delegation were honorary co-hosts along with 15 conservation organizations, businesses and academic institutions. Following the film, a lively panel discussion ensued between the attentive Narragansett audience and ocean experts about Rhode Island’s successes and lessons learned while creating Rhode Island’s Ocean Plan (SAMP) and how this can help with regional ocean planning in New England.

The following day, Thursday, April 5, we closed our East Coast tour with a successful premiere in New Jersey at the beautiful Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute. Students, professors, renewable ocean energy proponents, fishermen, conservationists, and the community joined together to watch the film and take part in another lively panel discussion—sharing trials, tribulations and their hopes and plans—to protect and manage the very shore and sea that New Jersey people rely on and adore so much. Thanks to Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute, Atlantic Wind Connection, Viking Village and Clean Ocean Action for co-hosting!

Would you like to see more partnerships and smart planning taking place in our ocean and coastal communities to ensure the protection of our vital ocean resources for economies today and generations tomorrow? Please consider writing a letter to your members of Congress today!

Check out photos from the Ocean Frontiers East Coast Tour.

Thanks for all you do!
The Green Fire Productions Team

Ocean Frontiers World Premiere a Big Success

From left: Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, filmmaker Karen Meyer and First Lady Cylvia Hayes in Port Orford, Oregon, for Ocean Frontiers premiere.

 

Whether you were in Port Orford for the world premiere of Ocean Frontiers or not, you can now watch the 6-minute video with highlights from the entire weekend. Hear remarks from Oregon Governor Kitzhaber and First Lady Hayes  about ocean stewardship and their kickoff for Ocean Frontiers. Click on the image to watch the video.

Join us this Wednesday, March 7th at 7pm for the Portland, Oregon, Ocean Frontiers premiere at the Hollywood Theatre. Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes will attend and speak about her passion for the ocean and her work on ocean health. Tickets can be purchased here.

Premieres are set for Los Angeles, Boston, Rhode Island, New Jersey and elsewhere across the country, check here for the most up-to-date schedule.

We encourage you to share Ocean Frontiers with others who may want to host an event, and we’ve made it easy for anyone to do this – just complete the Host a Screening form and we’ll get you started!

You can help build support for ocean stewardship by writing your members of Congress and letting them know you support the collaborative, science-based efforts featured in Ocean Frontiers. Write your letter today.

Thanks for all you do!

Karen Meyer
Executive Director, Green Fire Productions

 

 

Successful Film Outreach at Wild & Scenic Film Festival

Filmmaker Karen Meyer at Wild & Scenic Film Fest, 2012

Ocean Frontiers Part 3 & 4 screened this past weekend at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City, California. Over 300 festival goers viewed Ocean Frontiers on two different days.

“Yes!” “That’s right.” “Wow!” These positive reactions reverberated throughout the audience on Sunday as Mary Wahl, a 4th generation Oregon rancher, stated in Ocean Frontiers “We needed to bury that tired, old idea that loggers and fishing people, that ranchers and environmentalists were on different sides. Those days are sort of over. It’s clear that people from all these different arenas can come together and make good things happen, and that’s what’s going on here.”

After the film a number of people including a professor of agriculture from Iowa, a California eco-consultant and several citizens from communities across California inquired about how to premiere Ocean Frontiers in their community. They were excited to learn that Green Fire Productions has made it easy for people to host premieres in their communities with our free, online step-by-step Screening Toolkit and online Host-a-Screening form at ocean-frontiers.org/host-a-screening.

Showcasing success stories that lead by example and inspire is not the only thing Green Fire Productions’ filmmakers Karen Anspacher-Meyer and Ralf Meyer did with Ocean Frontiers. They also crafted and depicted the stories with a bipartisan tone to allow Ocean Frontiers to speak to and educate across a broad set of viewers, from the everyday ocean users to scientists; from farmers to policy-makers; and from fisherman to environmentalists.

Justin Malan, a consultant for an array of non-profits in California said, “Thank you,” to filmmaker Karen Meyer after the film ended, “for making these issues so accessible and for crafting the stories so well.”

Administration Releases Plans to Implement Better, More Streamlined Management of Our Nation’s Oceans, Coasts and Great Lakes – Give Your Input!

Our nation has long relied on the abundance of resources, economic value and natural beauty of our ocean and coasts. In 2007, shore-adjacent communities were home to 108.3 million people, 48.6 million jobs and contributed $5.7 trillion to the U.S. economy.[1]

Photo: Green Fire Productions

As populations rise and demands of our oceans and coasts increase, more holistic and streamlined management of our ocean and coastal resources are imperative.

Currently, waterways are managed by more than 20 federal agencies and are subject to more than 140 different laws and regulations. In addition, there are local and state governments regulations—making the availability of information and decision-making processes in regard to ocean and coastal issues inefficient and ineffective.

In 2010, the Obama Administration released the first ever National Ocean Policy to protect, maintain and restore our nation’s oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. The policy creates a framework under which all ocean resource management will take place to reduce duplicating efforts or working at cross-purposes, ultimately saving tax payer dollars and increasing transparency.

Last week, the administration released a draft implementation plan—a giant step forward in advancing the National Ocean Policy. The Draft Implementation Plan reflects over two years worth of hard work, investment and commitment made by state governments, commercial and industrial ocean users, universities and scientists, 25 federal agencies and departments and tens of thousands of citizens across the country to move our oceans toward better ocean management.

Photo: Green Fire Productions

This plan provides all ocean users a great opportunity to have their voices heard and to ensure that implementation of the National Ocean Policy encompasses the views and ideas of fishermen, scientists, shipping companies and port managers, energy developers, conservationists and those that live, work and play in coastal communities.

The administration is accepting public comment on the plans until February 27th. Please, make your voice heard and click here to view and comment on the National Ocean Policy Draft Implementation Plan.

 

 

 


[1] National Ocean Economics Program. (2009). State of the Ocean and Coastal Economies, p.6, http://www.oceaneconomics.org/NationalReport/.