"Sustainable homes, for a livable future"

We’ve been collaborating with Harvest on a series of videos featuring homeowners who are greening their homes and saving money by replacing their old gas furnaces with Harvest systems. Harvest is a super-efficient, all-electric heat pump system that combines heating and hot water. It uses a thermal battery, so it can take advantage of electricity when it’s cheapest and cleanest. So far we’ve highlighted happy homeowners in Albany and Sea Ranch. In July and August, we’ll be focusing on the South Bay.

SF Climate Week

FGP was at SF Climate Week filming the Gigaton Salon, an innovative and entertaining day-long event hosted by Harvest, Impulse Labs, Starshot and the Abundance Institute. Hunter Pence, Isaias Hernandez (aka @queerbrownvegan) and Jane Melia (Harvest CEO) were among the standout guest speakers, and comedians Rasheda Crockett & Megan Sass kept the audience laughing. We then created a social media package for Harvest (see one of the videos above) to showcase the event.

"Gratitude Easily Lays A Path Forward"

“For over 30 years, a Habitat home in Oakland was filled with memories and the laughter of five growing children. When those children inherited their beloved home they had the opportunity to sell it for a major windfall on the open market. Instead they sold it affordably back to Habitat, opening the door to homeownership for a new Habitat family. Now that home is about to be filled with growing children again, and we celebrate a new chapter in its amazing story of love, generosity, and paying it forward.”

What an honor to be able to tell this story. We were so moved to witness the happiness of the new homeowners and their four kids, the open-heartedness of the Guardado family, and the joyous support of the volunteers, neighbors and staff at this Home Dedication event on East 22nd St. in Oakland. Definitely one of the most gratifying projects we’ve done with Habitat for Humanity EBSV to date.

Happy Gardening

We headed to Wild Rose Park in Sacramento to spend a gorgeous day filming Bill Maynard’s composting seminar for City of Sacramento, Organics Recycling. Bill Maynard has worked for decades educating residents and helping run the city’s many community gardens, all with the goal of making gardening more accessible to all. On to the edit where we’ll create a cut of Bill’s 30 minute talk and a video series of short gardening and composting tips. Looking forward to working more with the city to highlight their environmental programs and to trying out some of Bill’s many tips in our own gardens!

The Girl That Got Away

The Girl That Got Away, a short documentary co-directed by Lauren Veen (FGP) and Ephi Stempler just wrapped up its festival run this weekend at the LA Indie Film Festival. The film made its world premiere at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival in February 2023 where it received the Audience Award for Best Documentary Short. It went on to screen at Frameline47, indie Short Fest, Outfest LA, CA Pride, Reel Queer Flix, and LA Indie Film Festival. Shout out to the festivals for hosting us; friends, family and colleagues for supporting us; and most importantly, Angel for courageously sharing her story.

“THE GIRL THAT GOT AWAY, though a heart-wrenching cautionary tale, is a festival highlight. Angel, at 64, is an HIV+ Mexican-American actor in San Francisco, often playing heavies and villains, who must decide whether to continue playing cis male roles on and offscreen after finally accepting that he identifies as female. Angel is in and out of the trans closet, suffers from depression, and is afraid of meeting other trans people because, "they would bring me all the way out." Angel's too scared to be the person he really is. While out to his Dixon, California family as gay (and attending the town's first Pride), Angel's reluctant to say anything about being trans, "because I'm afraid of losing them... There's always something stopping me." Angel remains hopeful his goal of transparency can be met this year and the audience in tears will be rooting for Angel every step of the way.
“

- Bay Area Reporter (SF Independent Film Festival)

Canary Live, Bay Area

Fine Grain Pictures live-streamed another packed Canary Media event, this time at Berkeley’s iconic Freight and Salvage. Moderators Jeff St. John and Eric Wesoff facilitated lively discussions about climate tech and the energy transition with expert panelists from government, advocacy, and VC firms, including State Senator Josh Becker, Elaine Hseih of the Department of Energy, Nancy Pfund of DBL Partners, Arthur Bart-Williams of GRID Alternatives, Mona ElNaggar of Valo Ventures, and Bernadette Del Chiaro of the California Solar & Storage Association. Thanks to Andrea, the Bobs, and the rest of the Freight and Salvage staff!

Canary Live, Seattle

This week FGP was in Seattle producing a livestream for Canary Media, a nonprofit news outlet covering the clean energy transition. At the KEXP Gathering Space experts discussed the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act and Remez Naam, an award-winning author and climatetech investor, gave a wide-ranging talk that touched on ultra-long-distance transmission, the problem with cows, and the potential of space-based solar power. Lots of optimism all around. Looking forward to the next event!

Castner Range National Monument!

In our video series Hope, Culture, & Community: El Paso’s Bold Fight for a National Monument, Ángel Peña of the Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project says, “It’s about the opportunity to be connected to your place and your land.” He and other featured locals – Emily, Chris, and Ben – are part of the 50+ year fight to protect Castner Range from development and ensure that future generations have access to this vast, beautiful open space.

When FGP was in El Paso filming, it was a big question whether President Biden would give Castner Range national monument status, but during post-production, we got the wonderful news that it had indeed been designated! There will now be a Castner Range National Monument. Congratulations to everyone we met in El Paso who has been working so hard to make this happen.

Beloved Community Build

We were honored to cover Habitat for Humanity’s Beloved Community Build in Walnut Creek this year! They hold this event every April to mark the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King and the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968. Malkia Device-Cyril – activist, writer, and public speaker – provided a spiritual anchor to the work of about 70 volunteers, giving an electrifying speech about how expanding access to affordable home ownership is an act toward justice that brings us closer to realizing Dr. King’s vision of The Beloved Community.

“There is another element that must be present in our struggle that then makes our resistance and nonviolence truly meaningful. That element is reconciliation. Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community.”

Martin Luther King Jr.
April 15, 1960, in Raleigh, North Carolina

“The racial wealth gap didn’t start yesterday; it started hundreds of years ago and it’s progressed to today. It’s important that we understand that every home you build…you are affecting something that is hundreds of years in the making. We’re not building a house, we’re building a future.”

Malkia Device-Cyril
April 1, 2023, in Walnut Creek, CA

Heading Home

We just wrapped our annual end-of-year video for Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley, which featured Michael, a future homeowner at Esperanza Place in Walnut Creek. Michael never thought he’d be able to own a home but with encouragement from his daughter Michelle, already a Habitat homeowner, he applied and was accepted. He’s excited to be able to provide a safe place for his grandkids to play and says, “I’m looking for the first day I move in so I can let my kids go out front, so they’ll know that this is going to be theirs.” We loved hearing Michael’s heartfelt story and working with the other star of the video, Patti Huang.

Talking Conservation in Tilden

For our latest shoot we rented a Xanadu-inspired retreat space overlooking Tilden Park, where we interviewed leaders from The North Face, Bank of the West and the The Conservation Alliance. These interviews will be part of a video that aims to inspire other businesses to become members of The Conservation Alliance and join in its efforts to protect wild places in North America.