“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.
Greening a Home on the Sonoma Coast
We had a great first day of production in beautiful Sea Ranch, to show a new installation of an innovative new heating system from Harvest Thermal. Featuring a homeowner and the installers, we’re loving the story and, of course, the location!
Transforming Mental Health in CA
We crafted a series of social videos for CalMHSA, whose mission is to unite all counties in California to make getting help for mental health patients easier and more streamlined. The videos featured people representing each county, whose personal testimonials helped bring home CalMHSA’s message.
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!
DX Week Livestream: ALL ABOUT AI
FGP spent a few days at Playground in Palo Alto for DX Week, an event sponsored by TDK Ventures. See Vincent below directing the livestream using FGP’s new Blackmagic Design ATEM Switcher!
Great deals, Less Waste
There’s a new Habitat Restore in Concord and FGP was there on opening day. Customers and staff talked about how by shopping at the Restore you can get great deals while diverting waste from the landfill. Lauren Veen (of FGP) worked at the very first Restore in San Leandro back in the day so it’s heartening to see how it’s grown and expanded throughout the Bay Area!
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.
Keep on Truckin'
The California Trucking Association is bidding farewell to their annual President. We put together a tribute video for him featuring his colleagues wishing him well. Using photos throughout the year and direct-to-camera interviews, we made a sweet and sincere farewell piece.
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.
The Boundary Waters, Minnesota
As part of an ongoing project with The Conservation Alliance, we visited Ely, Minnesota to film the stunning Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area and interview conservation and business leaders who have joined forces to fend off a potentially devastating copper mine. We got here just after the leaves had turned and luckily caught the two sunny days between rain and snow. Thank you Becky, Steve, and Joseph for sharing your stories with us!
Castner Range - El Paso, Texas
Here in El Paso, Texas documenting the campaign to protect Castner Range from development. Thanks to Ángel, Chris, Emily and Rabbi Ben for introducing us to this beautiful place and for fighting to preserve it for future generations.
Sacramento Goes Greener
We teamed up with the City of Sacramento and Circlepoint to help teach Sacramento residents how to use the new green recycling program, looking at everything from wrapping paper to dog poop! We worked directly with the team at the city to deliver their message on video. We had a great time collaborating with them and Circlepoint to create this educational video series!
Disappearing Billboard
Climate change is decimating our kelp forests, an essential and often overlooked coastal ecosystem. To bring awareness to the issue, Bank of the West partnered with Sustainable Surf and artist Andres Amador to create a massive sand mural at Dillon Beach. The dramatic “disappearing billboard” washed away the day it was made and left no trace. We took on post-production for these videos and included our own original kelp forest footage.
Manure => clean energy
Our latest video and its accompanying article has been rolled out on Bank of the West’s Means and Matters, a site dedicated to finance and sustainability. The project’s goal is to get dairy farmers interested in using methane digesters to offset their energy costs, create power for electric vehicles, and fight climate change. Using Bar 20 Dairy in the Central Valley as an example, the video encourages dairy farmers to get on the methane digester train by partnering with Bank of the West and BMW.
A course on exponential technology
Here in Silicon Valley filming a promo video for Singularity University where we spent a day learning about what’s to come in the near future, including robot interviewers and drones that can deliver packages up to 400 lbs.
