Help Distribute Film about Legend Dr. John Francis

Distribution Plans

Given the film's success on the festival circuit, we are preparing to launch a grassroots distribution and audience engagement effort with the goal of elevating the film's profile and reaching audiences nation-wide. We are kicking off our efforts with an in person week-long screening in the Bay Area at the Smith Rafael Film Center in late August.

We are seeking additional funds with the aim of hiring an Impact Producer and PR firm, coordinating online screenings with our environmental advocacy partners through the platform Eventive in September and October 2024. This is all in service of looking for broad platform distributorship this fall.

Budget Breakdown

Synopsis

In 1971 John Francis, known the world over as ‘Planetwalker’, witnessed an oil tanker collision in the San Francisco Bay. The sight of oiled birds on the shoreline caused him to give up motorized transport and rely solely on his own two feet. Months after that he took a vow of silence convinced that listening rather than adding fuel to any fire was the way ahead. He didn’t talk, but he kept on walking clear across the country and back again. During the next seventeen silent years he listened and studied the world around him. Over many miles his idea of environmentalism changed. At the core of his emerging belief were the people he met, talked to, and broke bread with.

At 78 years old, John both talks and rides in cars. Now he memorably recounts much of his interior journey, his thoughts, and desires as he intuitively crafted a unique life focused on environmental activism.

The film focuses on the period of John's life from the oil spill through his meandering 20-year journey across the states where he resumes speaking to work on oil spill legislation with the US Coast Guard. During this time, it seemed like the whole world, every creed and color, saw John pass by and interacted with him if only fleetingly. By tracking some of these characters down, we explore the weblike and sometimes deeply personal consequences of John’s decades of pilgrimage. Archival imagery, shared by John's acquaintances and by John himself, help capture the feeling of an era and John's physical journey across America.

Timeline

Research on this film began in 2022 and we worked extensively on it throughout 2023. We received funding from the Sierra Club, Brico Fund, Peak Design, Lush Cosmetics, Nell Newman Foundation, Keystone Policy Center, Aldo Leopold Foundation, and the Explorers Club, along with the generous contributions on this GoFundMe page. Funding from these sources enabled us to complete the film, titled 'Planetwalker' and begin a run on the festival circuit in early 2024. The film premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in February, where it won an Artistic Vision award. It went on to play at nearly a dozen festivals, winning numerous awards including the Audience Award at Mountainfilm, the Ophelia Award for Hope in Cleveland, and Best Short Documentary at the Nevada City Film Festival. It is slated to continue on its festival run through Summer and into Fall 2024, playing at notable events including IndyShorts, Bloomberg Green Fest, and the Blackstar Film Festival.