We select organizations in locations that are directly affected by polluting industries or climate disasters, as well as areas transitioning from being economically fueled by extractive energy industries to adopting more sustainable approaches.Selected organizations for Rural Cinema receive a $2,500 honorarium, a screening equipment package, a solar battery to run the equipment, and a $5,000 budget for any other hard costs needed for the series.
At its heart, Rural Cinema is about harnessing the power of story to drive change. The program trains environmental justice organizers to use film as a tool to bring people together, spark meaningful conversations, and inspire action on the challenges their communities face. With hands-on training, access to films, and funding to host their own series, participants transform storytelling into tangible, local impact.
This year, we’re excited to shine a spotlight on the 2025 Rural Cinema cohort, a remarkable group of organizations from across the country that are reshaping what’s possible in their communities.
Check out the upcoming film series created by our partners:
Amanecer
Esperanza Film Series (Lower Valley, TX)
A new film series is starting in the Lower Valley that will give the community an opportunity to get involved. The series will allow us to show you that there is hope in our community and we can make a change, giving our students a better learning environment or giving teachers better working conditions is our goal. Films will consist of inspiring stories involving organizing in communities just like ours.
CEER (Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience)
The Power of Our Region Tour (TX Gulf Coast)
This tour will serve as an opportunity for the Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience (CEER) to host community film events as part of the Regional Resilience Campaign Texas Gulf Coast in Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Jefferson, and Liberty Counties. We will amplify our partners in each regional county and share how to get involved in local/regional environmental, climate, resilience, and disaster recovery work.
Clarke Street Fund & Freedom Farm Azul
The Revolution from North to South (Prattville, AL)
The Revolution from North to South film series aims to amplify land-based resistance movements across the Americas through a curated collection of films that illuminate Indigenous and Black agrarian histories, land return efforts, and community-rooted food systems. This series offers a cinematic pathway to explore sovereignty, healing, and resistance as expressed through agriculture and land-based storytelling.
We believe storytelling is a tool for transformation. In a time marked by climate crisis, food insecurity, and systemic land dispossession, Revolution from North to South offers stories of land-based resilience as blueprints for action. This series honors ancestral knowledge, centers frontline communities, and invites viewers to reflect on their relationship to land, justice, and food.
Jubilee House Community + ACROSS
The Ground We Share (Parrish & Camp Hill, AL)
From the sharecropper soil of Camp Hill to the coal-stained hills of Parrish, our communities are rooted in stories of struggle, strength, and survival. The Ground We Share is more than a film series, it’s a space to come together, break bread, share stories, and dream of something better. Through powerful films about environmental justice, family-friendly movies, and real conversations we’ll gather across lines of race, place, and history to imagine a different future for our communities together. Join neighbors from Walker and Tallapoosa Counties for evenings of film, food, and honest conversation about what it means to care for the places we call home
Georgia WAND
Ecoflix, Cinema & Conversation (Atlanta, GA)
This film series uses film as a tool to spark dialogue, build awareness, and empower underserved rural communities in Burke and Richmond Counties around environmental and energy justice, so that they may act as catalysts for change in the places they call home.
New Mexico Conservation Alliance
Voices of the Basin (New Mexico, NM)
The Voices of the Basin Rural Cinema Series by the New Mexico Conservation Alliance harnesses the power of film to ignite dialogue, inspire stewardship, and mobilize community action around environmental and water issues in Ruidoso and surrounding rural communities. Through screenings and post-film conversations, we spotlight stories of resilience, challenge dominant narratives, and elevate local voices—especially youth—as champions for a just and sustainable future.
About Rural Cinema
Rural Cinema is a training institute and community engagement program aimed at supporting leaders from rural areas and small towns across the United States in using film screenings as a resource in their work for
environmental justice and protection.
