Filmmakers Spotlight the Blue Collars at the Heart of Green Building 

At the start, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis envisioned their film “The Greening of Southie” as the tale of the architecture and design of South Boston’s first green residential building and its development in the tight-knit enclave that is renown for its hardscrabble past.  

Their documentary is indeed a story of people and their culture.

But the perspective is from the ground up instead of the drawing board.

“It was only after we spent more and more time over cups of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee with the men and women in the hard hats that we knew that they were the core of the story — and that they were the core audience,” Ellis said.

In celebration of Earth Week, the filmmakers are offering "The Greening of Southie" for screening in union halls. The program officially runs until April 26, but already has proven so popular that some locals have scheduled showings as late as April 29.

The Macallen Building.

The more than 70 screenings include a program today at the Macallen Building in South Boston.

The 11-story luxury condominum building is the centerpiece of the 72-minute film that debuted a year ago on Earth Day on "The Green" at the Sundance Channel.

The Macallen attained LEED Gold certification as a green building and was named one of the American Institute of Architects' Top 10 green projects in 2008.

The building is made from recycled steel and filled with fixtures and amenities that are designed to be aesthetically pleasing as well as environmentally efficient. It has a distinctive sloping green roof and a rainwater catchment system, features that contribute to the expectation that resource consumption at the building will continue to be far less than that in traditional buildings of comparable size. Water savings has been estimated at more than 600,000 gallons a year, with electricity savings pegged at 30 percent.

Cheney and Ellis tracked the project through its completion and recorded the triumphs, such as the ceremony to mark placement of the final beam and the receipt of green building certification, and the many challenges that emerged for builders. Those included bamboo flooring that buckled, had to ripped out and reordered, and green roof vegetation that did not take hold and also had to be replaced.

Working on the green roof.

Many of the construction workers on the project were veterans in their trades yet novices in the field of green building. The film was as much about their initiation to environmentally friendly building as it was about the development.

"Almost all the workers were deeply, deeply curious about green building," said Cheney. But they had few opportunities to learn about the subject first hand, and the filmmakers came to realize that their project could help the people at the heart of green building learn more about it.

Putting the documentary in circulation among the building trades, the filmmakers hope, will also help bridge the concept end of the industry and, from the perspective of the workers, the people who make the ideas a reality.

"If we want this environmental movement to succeed it must exist in a very big tent," Ellis said.

The Macallen, a view from the street.

Over in Washington state, Stacia Jenkins with the Cement Masons and Plasterers Union strongly voiced her agreement.

"There is such a demand for this information," said Jenkins, the community outreach coordinator for the union.

Until recently, however, there hasn't been a lot of connection among the various segments of the building industry on the subject of green building. So, Jenkins has been helping to schedule screenings of "The Greening of Southie" among labor groups in the Pacific Northwest.

"We need to get people in the trades more involved in the whole process," she said, emphasizing that the knowledge-sharing shouldn't be viewed as unidirectional.

"People in the trades are skilled, experienced workers with expertise in their crafts," said Jenkins. "There's a vast amount of knowledge that's not being tapped into — knowledge that could be very helpful in development of green products and specs and in providing feedback."

The screenings of the Cheney and Ellis film in her region include a showing of the 12-minute video "Green Building: Jobs of the Future," produced by the Washington State Department of Ecology, and a discussion following the films.

Others helping to organize the screenings are providing similar programs. Project partners include the Fledgling Fund, Green Home NYC, Green Roundtable, Green for All, The Apollo Alliance, Bullfrog Films and the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers.

"It's a dream of ours, as with most filmmakers, that you can do something useful with our film," Cheney said.

"And if we help give Earth Day back to the people who build the green buildings ... " Ellis put in.

"Then that's putting our film to work." Cheney said.

"The Greening of Southie" is expected to air again on the Sundance Channel and is scheduled to be shown in public theaters this summer.

Here's a clip from the film:



_{All images courtesy of "The Greening of Southie."}