Windfall hits the small screen – Director Laura Israel, Keitha Capouya, and Ken Jaffee — Sun. 5/13/12, 7pm ET

Wind Wise Radio will be speaking with Laura Israel the director of the movie WINDFALL.  

Two Meredith residents featured in Windfall, Keitha Capouya and Ken Jaffe, MD, will also join in.  

Keitha currently serves as Meredith's Town Supervisor and Ken runs Slope Farms which specializes in grass-fed, organic beef.

The special co-host for this episode is Annette Smith, Executive Director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment.

Laura Israel, Director/Producer

WINDFALL director Laura Israel grew up in New Jersey and after earning a degree in film from NYU, she edited music videos for Lou Reed, Keith Richards, David Byrne, New Order, Patti Smith, Ziggy Marley, Sonic Youth and many others. Laura has worked as photographer/filmmaker Robert Frank’s editor for nearly two decades; the films have screened all over the world and won many awards. She also edited Stephanie Black’s feature documentary AFRICA UNITE, LIFE FOR A CHILD directed by Academy Award nominated DP Ed Lachman and MUSIC OF REGRET by photographer Laurie Simmons. Editing credits include advertising and television promo campaigns that have garnered AICP awards, International Film and TV awards, a GLAAD award, an Emmy award, and a Monitor award for editing. This is Laura Israel's first film as director, and she was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film.

ABOUT THE FILM

Wind power… it’s sustainable … it burns no fossil fuels…it produces no air pollution. What’s more, it cuts down dependency on foreign oil. That’s what the people of Meredith, in upstate New York first thought when a wind developer looked to supplement the rural farm town’s failing economy with a farm of their own -- that of 40 industrial wind turbines. WINDFALL, a beautifully photographed feature length film, documents how this proposal divides Meredith’s residents as they fight over the future of their community. Attracted at first to the financial incentives that would seemingly boost their dying economy, a group of townspeople grow increasingly alarmed as they discover the impacts that the 400-foot high windmills slated for Meredith could bring to their community as well as the potential for financial scams. With wind development in the United States growing annually at 39 percent, WINDFALL is an eye-opener that should be required viewing for anyone concerned about the environment and the future of renewable energy.

Keitha Capouya -- Meredith Planning Board chairperson for 5 years. Although this is a volunteer position, Keitha diligently takes on the task of critically researching the Meredith wind proposal for over a year in order to write a wind facilities zoning ordinance for the town. Keitha reveals that she has owned a publishing company with her husband and in fact, has written and edited encyclopedias.  Keitha currently serves as Meredith's Town Supervisor.

Ken Jaffe, MD -- Doctor from Brooklyn NY, moved to Meredith to raise grass fed beef. Also has a degree in public health, and explains the sound issues and potential health concerns with wind turbines. Ken is Frank Bachler's closest neighbor, and is the first resident to find out about the proposal. Ken practiced family medicine for 25 years, after which he studied public health at Columbia University. This let to a strong interest in the relationship between human health and the way we raise livestock. He currently operates Slope Farms in Meredith, NY where he raised grass fed beef for restaurants, butcher shops, and individuals.

Praise for Laura Israel 's WINDFALL

"CRITIC'S PICK! Urgent, informative and artfully assembled. The film's implications are clear: The quest for energy independence comes with caveats. Energy companies remain eager to plunder nature's bounty in pursuit of profit." - Andrew Webster, The New York Times

"I thought wind energy was something I could believe in. Windfall has taken the wind out of my sails." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"A sublimely cinematic documentary, 'Windfall' is thoroughly engaging, educational and entertaining. It proves, once again, that the best nonfiction cinema possesses the same attributes as good fiction: Strong characters, conflict, story arc, visual style."
- John Anderson, The Wall Street Journal

"Daring...intriguing...insightful. A thorough, close-up examination of how energy policy gets worked out on the ground - often at the expense of community harmony. Eco docs are rarely as attuned to the folly of human ingenuity as this one or as insightful on our knee-jerk demand for impossibly easy solutions." - Mark Holcomb, Village Voice

" Enlightening and visually striking." - Tom Keogh, The Seattle Times

"Fascinating....Gripping. 'Windfall' is about much more than the hidden costs and unexpected side effects of wind-power generation, or about a citizens' uprising in the tiny town of Meredith, N.Y. It's about the American tendency - and very likely the human tendency - to look for magic-bullet solutions to complicated social and economic problems, where none are available. It's a microcosmic version of the political divisions - between left and right, environmentalists and free-marketers, corporations and citizens - that have virtually paralyzed our republic. It's a reminder that whenever a virtually unregulated industry (as in this case) offers capitalists a chance to defraud the little guy and make a bundle, they'll do it. It's a tantalizing case study that suggests ordinary people still have the power to steer a course between faceless bureaucracies and greedy capitalists, but only just - and only if they can find a way to overcome their differences and work together." -Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com

"Never alarmist or patronizing…strung so tightly and effortlessly together that it’s hard to believe this is a first-time filmmaker at hand." - Christopher Bell, IndieWire

"Fascinating, insightful, and fair… An intimate portrait of one New York community in heavy battle." - Stewart Nusbaumer, Huffington Post

"Emotionally charged human conflict that results in a genuine cliffhanger."
-Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

"Timely...a carefully researched and well-balanced study. See this film and consider what it reveals before steaming ahead with wind turbine development."
- Jennifer Merin, About.com Documentaries

"Beautifully produced, elegantly structured, edited authoritatively, with unforgettable characters." - Patricia Aufderheide, Center for Social Media

"The film isn't agenda-driven advocacy, but an invitation to think critically about an alternative energy source often presented as a panacea." -Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Provides a much-needed view of the growing backlash against the rapid expansion of the wind industry." - Robert Bryce, Energy Tribune

"One of the most surprising eco docs I've seen in years. [Director Laura] Israel deserves credit." - J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader

"The genre at its most revealing…category 5-level entertainment. A stunning debut, excellent and thrilling." - Doris Toumarkine, Film Journal

"An excellent film. This is a documentary that needs to be seen." - Gary Weiss, The Street

"Damningly traces a pattern of coercion and greed that extends from industry to federal and local governments. Wildfall’s community advocacy is heartening, the information valuable." - Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out Chicago



HOW TO GET WINDFALL

UNITED STATES AND CANADA

For inquiries about booking a public screening of WINDFALL, please contact Paul Marchant, paul@firstrunfeatures.com

To buy the DVD for personal home use, please use this link:
Purchase WINDFALL

WINDFALL links on Digital Platforms:

Non-Theatrical/Educational Sales in the US

For purchase by libraries, colleges, K-12 schools, media centers, and other non-profit educational organizations. Can be used for screenings of 50 or less, may not be open to the public, and no admission may be charged. For more information, please contact: windfalledu@gmail.com

INTERNATIONAL
For distribution or broadcast interest outside of North America, please contact international sales agent Mercury Media HERE

Stay tuned for additional details.


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Comment by WWR on May 13, 2012 at 10:28am

Donna,

The film has helped so many folks get started and organized.  I hope you'll listen tonight and, if you feel like it, dial in to 213-943-3683 to personally thank Laura and our other guests.

-Harley

Comment by Donna Amrita Davidge on May 13, 2012 at 9:17am

Laura has helped us SO much.through her film we were able to convince people in Island Falls ( a small group but a start) of what Wind power is really all about..and we are now on our way to creating an ordinance, have a long ways to go but this film should be widely seen and Sierra Club, Audobon etc should rethink who their sponsors are

and REALLY protect the environment all of us on the Task Force are trying to preserve and protect.

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?

We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

 -- Mahatma Gandhi

"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi 

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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