A Fierce Green Fire is done but not quite done. A few tasks and costs remain:

1. Mastering & Licensing of Archival Material
Most of the archival film, photos and graphics have been mastered and up-converted to HD. A few sources remain to be mastered. The bigger and more expensive task is licensing all that archival material. We are pursuing fair use, which gives us the right to use small amounts of other films. There are also many sources where rights are being given free, or are public domain. Major sources like Greenpeace are giving us a good deal. Only a few network archives are charging commercial rates, which can be very expensive. Based on a detailed review, we believe it will cost about $40,000 to license archival material. There will be mastering/up-converting costs too, estimated at $5,000. Legal expenses associated with fair use will add $5,000 more. So the budget for archival mastering and licensing is $50,000.

2. Music Licensing
Original music for the film has already been paid for. Much existing music we have arranged permission to use. In some cases licenses will be free or a few hundred dollars. Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi is the most expensive. They granted a festival license for $2,000; we’re afraid that amount might more than double for full rights. Music yet to be cleared includes: Philip Glass; Tom Lehrer’s Pollution; Garden of Eden; and Pride of Man. These license should be reasonable and we’re prepared to pull music if need be. A hopeful budget for music is $10,000.

3. Recording Narration
Plans are to have five narrators. Robert Redford has agreed to narrate the first act. We are asking others to do the remaining four acts. We do not plan to pay fees to the narrators. But expenses associated with travel and recording may run to $8,000.

4. Final Editing
We need to spend three weeks laying in newly mastered material and final narration, as well as doing a final round of editing – trims, additions, changes, another pass at the ending... $8,000 is budgeted for an editor and assistant. $6,000 more is budgeted for fixes and patches to the masters and export to tape and drives. So $14,000 is the total for final editing.

5. Other
$6,000 is allotted for production staff and overhead. Mark Kitchell has worked unpaid for the better part of four years, but needs to be paid to devote full time to completing the film. $2,000 is a contingency for additional filming. And $10,000 is still owing from the Sundance finish.

So the total completion budget is $100,000. That’s all that stands in the way of releasing the film. We expect advances from distribution. But it will take contributions and grants as well. Help us get A Fierce Green Fire out in the world!

Tax-deductible donations may be made to the San Francisco Film Society. Here’s the link: http://www.sffs.org/donate/donate-now.aspx?pid=1059 There’s also a button on the home page of our website: http://afiercegreenfire.com Or you can send a check payable to SFFS to our office at 1016 Lincoln Blvd #10, San Francisco CA 94129. Phone (415) 515-0785. Thanks!

Tuesday, April 3 @ 7pm
Wednesday, April 4 @ 7pm

Cinema Connect, Bioneers and 350.org present…

A FIERCE GREEN FIRE
The Battle for a Living Planet

A Feature Documentary Chronicling the Environmental Movement and the Pioneers Who Gave It Name and Voice

Delancey Street Foundation Screening Room
600 Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA 94107
(Go half a block south from Brannan to the gate to the courtyard)

Tickets
Advance $15, Door $20
Purchase for Tuesday, April 3 or for Wednesday, April 4.

Saturday, March 17th

Ted Adcock Community Center, 535 Kelly ave., Half Moon Bay

7pm to 10pm

Purchase tickets here. Screening organized by Cinema Connect.

Thursday, April 19th

The Del Mar Theatre, 1124 Pacific ave., Santa Cruz

7pm

Director Mark Kitchell will be speaking after the show about environmental movements, future movements, and the making of the film.

The Legacy of Love Canal: Environmental Justice and Social Change

March 12, Lecture: 12:00 pm, Eaton 206; screening of the film Fierce Green Fire, 7:00 pm, Barnum 008, Medford Campus

Featuring Lois Gibbs, the Executive Director for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) and Stephen Lester, the CHEJ Science Director as they talk about environmental activism and the media. Sponsored by the Center for Media Studies (CMS) and ENVS. That same evening, they will join us to screen the film A Fierce Green Fire.

http://as.tufts.edu/environmentalstudies/events/filmscreening.htm

The Bay Area premieres mean a lot to us! We hope you’ll grab this opportunity to come see the film and celebrate with us. It’s shaping up to be an exciting week. Polly Higgins, a British barrister who is heading a campaign to make ecocide the fifth crime against peace, and is invited to speak at Rio +20, is coming to the US for the first time. She’ll appear at our screenings and is holding her own event. Also, thanks to Brad Nye of Cinema Connect, there’s now a screening in Menlo Park. Here’s the schedule:

Thursday 3/1 Brower Center in Berkeley, 2150 Allston Way 6:00 doors open, 6:30 screening
Tuesday 3/6 Marin Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross 6:00/6:30
Wednesday 3/7 Delancey Street Fdtn Theater, 600 the Embarcadero, San Francisco 6:00/6:30
Saturday 3/10 Kepler’s Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park 7:00/7:15

Polly Higgins’ “Fired Up for Rio” event will be 3/9 at the Cowell Theater in SF from 7:00pm-10:00pm. Ask Karen Payne or Brad Nye for more details: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it & This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Our events – the first three – are $35 per person, sliding scale down to whatever you can afford. We want everyone to come. Each of the venues are 200-300 seats and we may hit capacity. So please RSVP to hold a place.

Celia Kitchell can be reached at (415) 516-2892 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Mark Kitchell can be reached at (415) 515-0785 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Make checks payable to San Francisco Film Society and your ticket will be tax-deductible. Send checks in advance if you like, to 1016 Lincoln Blvd #10, San Francisco CA 94129. Or just pay at the door. The important thing is to come out and see the film. There’s nothing like a big screen and a hot audience. We want to make a big splash too, share the excitement with everyone who helped us through many a year. It’s done at last!

A Fierce Green Fire has been accepted to the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital and will be playing at 6pm on the night of March 25. The film will be introduced by Flo Stone, President and Founder of the festival, and followed by a discussion with the director Mark Kitchell, Philip Shabecoff (author of A Fierce Green Fire), Barbara Bramble (Senior Advisor, International Climate Energy Program, National Wildlife Federation), Lois Gibbs (Executive Director, Center for Health Environment & Justice), and Joe Romm (Editor, Climate Progress). More info here. The screening will be held at:

Elihu Root Auditorium

Carnegie Institution for Science

1530 P St., NW

(Metro: Dupont Circle, Directions: map)

FREE. For tickets RSVP at Brown Paper Tickets.