Written and Directed by Michaela Lind

"An absurdist meditation on ecological crisis and human connection"

This surrealist short film, influenced by Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson and inspired by Russian absurdist Daniil Kharms and the majesty of marine life, serves as both a warning cry and a love letter to our oceans and their extraordinary inhabitants.

Credits:

• Director: Michaela Lind

• Cinematography: Alex Levin

• Producer: Molly Stark-Ragsdale, Michaela Lind

• Set Design: Paloma Ruvira, Michaela Lind

• Sound Design: Sean Brennan

• Actor: Drew Valins

Written and Directed by Molly Stark-Ragsdale

After a citizen enforcement law passed in 2018, a posse of environmental bounty hunters now roam the streets of New York City on foot, scooter, and bike on the search for tailpipe exhaust. They call themselves Idle Warriors and will stop at nothing to ticket illegally idling trucks.

Credits:

This short film documents a community gathering at the gates of National Grid’s Greenpoint liquefied fracked gas facility—the largest fossil fuel site in New York State in the heart of North Brooklyn on the border with Queens.

Neighbors, elders, scientists, and artists share stories of loss, resistance, and vision, from the health harms of polluted air and water to the dangers of storing explosive liquefied gas in their residential neighborhood.

Together, they call for rejecting National Grid’s proposed fossil fuel expansion plan and reimagining this land for life-sustaining purposes.

Filmed on May 4, 2025, the piece blends testimony, sound, and imagery into a collective demand: shut down the Greenpoint LNG facility and build a fossil-free future for New York.

Special Thanks
To the artists, activists, scientists, and community members who made the May 4th event possible, including: Sane Energy, No North Brooklyn Pipeline Alliance, No One’s Ark, Soils Spirit Forest, Urban Soils Institute, North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, and Green Feather Foundation.

American Adaptation is a photographic documentary of three farm communities in the Colorado River Basin experiencing intense impacts of climate change and navigating consequences of water management failures.

Each year, 70 percent of water diverted from the Colorado River enables farmers to contribute about 15 percent of U.S. agricultural production. But as the landscape of the southwestern United States becomes drier,  this level of production may be impossible to sustain.  With the river's major reservoirs nearing historic lows, farms are more frequently losing access to water they need to grow food. 

As human-driven climate change intensifies, the basin's future water security is uncertain. Scientists estimate that for every degree celsius temperature rises, average Colorado River flows could decrease up to 9 percent. Temperatures across the basin have already risen by 1.5 degrees celsius on average. By 2050, recent studies indicate the river's flow could decline up to 30 to 40 percent below averages from last century. 

Collectively, these factors are creating one of the largest, most pressing climate adaptation crises in the United States and northern Mexico. 40 million people — 1 in 10 living in the U.S. - depend on this freshwater resource. How its communities navigate shortages may provide a road map for other river systems in the future. 

At a pivotal moment for the Colorado River Basin, when proactive action to cut fossil fuel emissions globally coupled with water management decisions could stabilize this freshwater system in the future.

Supported by the National Geographic World Freshwater Initiative, this project invites audiences to think deeply about where our freshwater comes from, and how we might best protect it. Globally, 70 percent of the world’s freshwater is diverted to support agriculture.

As climate change increasingly impacts Earth’s snow fed river systems, communities that rely on them are under growing pressure to meet demands across sectors with less certain water access. 

Rockwell 2040, focuses on climate change. The playful figures from Norman Rockwell’s artworks are placed in an environment ravaged by climate hazards, such as drought, wildfires, destruction (caused by increased hurricanes and storms), and rising sea levels. 

 Climate experts have reached the conclusion that if not stemmed by 2040, the earth’s temperature will spike to a point of no return. 

The figures are presented in greyscale, ‘ghosts’ against a full color landscape. This was done as a reckoning,  a visual way for the past to interact with our present day and future realities. The end result is a mix of humor and horror, nostalgia and nightmare. 

Climate Change is the defining issue of our time and we are at a defining moment. I made the artworks in Rockwell 2040 to ask a seminal question; is it too late to stop this fate?

An introspection through the sound of a Humpback whale.

-When we silence the sound of the ocean and especially the majestic whales, what are we silencing in ourselves?

The recording from Frank Watlington and produced by Roger Payne “Songs of a Humback Whale” in the 1970’s impacted our perception of whales and made a global impact on preventing their full extinction until now…

OCEAN Debris collected and generously donated by Julie Ludlow at Center for Coastal Studies, Provincetown, MA

Whale Tale made by NYC costume designer Lisa Renee Jordan.

Whale sound and Whale footage used by the courtesy of Artlist.com, Adobe stock and Roberto Pixabay.

This puppet is and excerpt from an ongoing open pace puppet performance, MURMURATIONS, draws attention to the environmental impact of plastics with giant puppets crafted of plastic trash collected from New York shorelines and has been supported by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Riverkeeper, Greenpeace USA and a 2025 Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.