For a special Earth Week program, CFF co-hosted a screening of Weathered: The Heat is On (2024, dir. Trip Jennings) and Green Spaces Fight Climate Change in Cities (2022, dir. Meghan McDonough) with WE ACT for Environmental Justice at the Maysles Documentary Center. A post-screening conversation highlighted current measures combatting extreme heat in New York City, including Emily Louise Walker of the Natural Areas Conservancy; Jocelyn R. of the New York City Emergency Management Department (NYCEM) Cooling Center Program; Paul Lozito of the NYC Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice; and Meghan McDonough, Director of Green Spaces Fight Climate Change in Cities, with Caleb Smith as moderator (Resiliency Coordinator, WE ACT).

About the films:

Weathered: The Heat is On (2024, dir. Trip Jennings): Host Maiya May explores the most deadly kind of weather, heat, in an unlikely place: Portland, Oregon. She revisits the 2021 heat dome, one of the most anomalous weather events recorded on earth. In order to understand why some urban areas are hotter than others, she travels to Medellín, Colombia. Then she visits the hottest city in the US, Phoenix, Arizona, to see how we can turn the temperature down.

Green Spaces Fight Climate Change in Cities (2022, dir. Meghan McDonough): The Southside of Williamsburg in New York City's Brooklyn borough lacks green space, putting its residents at increased risk of the negative impacts of climate change, from flooding to air pollution. NBCLX contributor Meghan McDonough speaks with activists in the community fighting for environmental justice.

Photos courtesy of Joe Kurle and Jesse R. Tendler