Art and the Environment

John Fiege is a director, cinematographer, and photographer whose films have played at SXSW, Cannes, Museum of Modern Art, Hot Docs. In this interview, he discusses his latest film Raising Aniya, which tells the story of Aniya Wingate, a 16-year-old dancer, who sets out on a creative journey to choreograph and produce a performance to heal her spirit after Hurricane Harvey.

K.J. Chien (she/her) is a Taiwanese-American writer based in New York City, and a finalist for Grist’s Imagine 2200 climate fiction competition for her short stort, “The Ones Left Behind”. She loves using the speculative and the strange to examine themes such as intergenerational relationships, the Asian American diaspora, and to dream of different tomorrows.

In the first of this two-part blog series, we interview Sage Hoffman Nadeau, winner of Grist's Imagine 2200 climate fiction competition, about her background, short story, and her perspective on the role of writers in the environmental movement.

Layla Razek, Green 2.0’s Digital Media and Communications Fellow, explores how artistic expression can be used to disrupt dominant modes of thought. Retracing her own family history of resistance, her poem unfolds into a journey to find her place in a global movement for social and environmental justice.

Ranjani Prabhakar is a musician, educator, and environmental advocate based in Washington, DC. She is the songwriter and front-woman of the indie band Lil Idli and co-founder of the production company Flame Lily Media, two outfits that use the power of art and music to inspire ecological justice. Ranjani is also part of Earthjustice’s policy team, leading the Healthy Communities team responsible for advancing legislative and advocacy strategies at the nexus of public health and environmental justice. Recognized for her work in bridging advocacy and the arts, she was selected by the PBS All Arts program as one of five Climate Artists in 2024, and was a recent awardee of the US Grassroots Accelerator by the Women’s Earth Alliance.

In January, we asked artists to submit pieces on the theme of ‘Breathing Life into Dormant Seeds’. In nature, some dormant seeds only emerge when the conditions are right for their survival. Over years, over decades, they wait. We invited artists to represent revived dreams and renewed hope through any art form of their choosing. After reviewing several submissions, we selected two artists and a runner-up. Read on for an explanation of their pieces and to learn more about the artists themselves.

Through the lens of the award-winning film Oppenheimer, Good Energy Collective's Michael Mouton argues for a reevaluation and departure from the 'great man' narrative. He calls for a collective approach to far-reaching crises and problems — like the climate crisis.

Megha Agrawal Sood believes in the power of sharing stories and building unexpected collaborations to inspire action. She is a Director at Doc Society and leads the Climate Story Unit, a new initiative to support productions and impact campaigns of climate-themed stories across the globe. Megha’s previous work experience includes leading impact programming at the film company, Exposure Labs, and helping purpose-driven organizations grow at the innovation firm, IDEO. She was raised in Sugar Land, Texas, is a graduate of Northwestern University, and is currently based in Boulder, Colorado.

In this guest blog post by the League of Conservation Voters, we learn about artist Daniel González, who teamed up with LCV and Chispa AZ to make a beautiful papel picado inspired art installation. The piece called attention to the urgent need for climate justice, immigration rights and voter protection. LCV asked the artist some questions about his story and what climate justice means to him.

In this Q+A, David Andrusia, Executive Director of the March on Washington Film Festival (MOWFF), discusses the origins of the festival in the civil rights movement, how to watch the festival, and this year’s festival theme. The MOWFF was founded by Robert Raben in 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.