Peter Terezakis

Call for Entries

March 31, 2025 by Peter Terezakis

Dear Colleague,

I hope this message finds you well. I am reaching out to connect with you regarding New York University’s
Third Annual Climate Change Film Festival.

NYU has recently become a member of UArctic, a collaborative network of institutions across the eight Arctic states and beyond. With fifteen global academic sites—and a sixteenth opening later this spring in Bombay, India—our combined academic community is uniquely positioned to foster a diverse and sustained global dialogue on the climate crisis, both today and in the years to come.

Leveraging this global network—together with the reach of the internet and the accessibility and immediacy of cell phone filmmaking—we have an unprecedented opportunity to develop a worldwide forum showcasing student experiences, visions, and voices from across our rapidly changing planet.

We would be most grateful for your assistance in sharing our call for entries with your community.

In addition, we are seeking two volunteer judges from each country to review submitted films. Selected entries will be made available for review beginning April 15 at midnight Eastern Time, and we kindly ask that evaluations be submitted by April 18 via a shared Google document. If you are unavailable to serve as a judge but know someone who might be interested, we would greatly appreciate your referral.

We believe that storytelling holds the power not only to engage hearts and minds, but also to inspire meaningful transformation.

By featuring films from the Arctic and beyond, we hope to expand our students’ perspectives and underscore that climate change is a shared global reality—that they are not alone.

Given current and anticipated climate-related events, your support would mean a great deal to us. If you have recommendations for other faculty members I should contact, I would be happy to reach out to them as well.

I sincerely hope you will encourage your students and colleagues to participate.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions.

Warm regards,

Prof. Peter Terezakis

Please distribute and post to UArctic colleagues, alumni, and students:

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

You are invited to submit your short film to
The Third Annual NYU Climate Film Festival.

This festival is a showcase of science-driven, climate-focused films aimed at raising awareness, presenting solutions, and promoting positive change.

Submission Details:

Films must be 1 to 3 minutes in length.
Can be shot on a cellphone.

Open to currently enrolled students and alumni from NYU and UArctic

Multiple entries permitted • Cash prizes are awarded!

Open to all genres, including documentary, experimental, and more.
Winning entries from 2023 and 2024 are available as examples.

Key Dates:

The submission window will open on: April 1 and close on April 15th
Festival Date: April 21, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, 4th Floor
NYU Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square South, NYC, NY
– This event will be livestreamed and a recording will be available. Winning filmmakers will be contacted. –

Winning Films Will Also Be Screened At:

Marché du Film, Cannes – May 15
Icefjord Center, Ilulissat, Greenland – June 6

Click here to learn more and submit your film on April 1!

Join us in amplifying climate stories that matter. We look forward to promoting your vision!

MODIS

February 21, 2025 by Peter Terezakis

Selected Final Projects from Abrupt Climate Change

January 10, 2023 by Peter Terezakis

Methanezilla – Benny Rendell and Deb DeSantos

Reduce or Die – Delia Kenagy and Claire Yezbak

Pay Attention – Maddie Boudov and Wyatt Baker

The Future Is Calling
Written and Directed by
Audrey Kim Chung
with
Jason Hoover, Audrey Hoover, Pierce Elliot, and Kevin Gill
Filmed by Ana Marks

The Sorry Project, Josh Zacher

After two months, I have a finished film! I’ve learned a lot throughout this process both as a person and an artist, but I am very proud of what I made.

I have to thank Justin Scholar a million times for all of his help and support throughout this entire process.

I was very taken by the fact that 3 states have outlawed the term “climate change.”

Please check out some of my inspiration from Greenpeace.org, Rob Marshall, Flint, and Donald Trump.

The film is also on my website!

Final Project for Abrupt Climate Change Fall 2021

Written, Edited, and Directed by Maria Lozada-Belisario

Seaweed Shelter – Elias Wirth

May 29, 2021 by Peter Terezakis

Seaweed Shelter PDF

My final project was really a chance for me to combine two of my passions and skills, seaweed and architectural drafting, and explore the exciting world of sustainable materials. As I am a training architect or landscape architect, I thought it would be a great opportunity to research the possibilities that seaweed can provide, especially in terms of being a bio-based construction material with high carbon storage. I thought about creating a seaweed education centre first, but I realized that starting off small is the way to go as I had to research what was even possible to build with seaweed, and whether seaweeds have the desired properties to make them a green alternative to man-made artificial construction materials like cement and bricks- which contribute enormously to global warming and annual emissions from humans. Therefore I decided to focus on creating a design for a sustainable “Seaweed Emergency Shelter,” as I felt that this would be a good starting point to really test and probe whether seaweed is a suitable, cost-efficient material.

My goal- which I succeeded- was to create a more comfortable, and most importantly, greener emergency shelter than the “Better Shelter” which I had identified as a leading product in the market but lacking many things in my opinion as made from plastic mostly. I was, therefore, in contact with both seaweed researchers and emergency shelter designers who helped me with questions along my journey to creating the Seaweed Shelter. David Thalen from Better Shelter and Kathryn Larsen, an independent seaweed researcher from Denmark helped me with questions and gave me feedback with my design proposal- they both supported me greatly and thought my concept was a very interesting one, and one they would be happy to support further. I also had a trained architect, Jean Phifer, look over my designs and give me feedback.

I came up with my Shipping Pallet Seaweed Insulation module, in response to David Thalen’s advice that time and building material constraints are the biggest hurdles for emergency shelters. I combined a bioplastic with hemp to create hard insulation panel boards following a Youtube recipe. Shipping pallets are very suitable as structural support, especially as available easily and cheaply globally.

My biggest challenge was creating a concept that is still very much in the early phases of research internationally and thus I had difficulty researching what seaweeds are suitable for construction. Also as I was in NYC I was limited to conceptual thinking and planning and was unable to build anything physically. However, now I can say that I have a good idea of the material potential and I will definitely like to use it in future architecture projects, both aesthetically and functionally.

I feel that I succeeded with my goal of a green emergency shelter concept. Another big success for me was discovering a seaweed community that I had no idea existed, both of seaweed artists and scientists, which I am now a part of after setting up a seaweed shelter Instagram account- now with over 50 followers.

My next step is to build a simple prototype using the shipping pallets, and test to see how durable a simple 6 sided structure would be, and how good of an insulator.

I can say for certainty that we are indeed on the verge of a seaweed revolution, not just in terms of creating seaweed for eating and energy, but also in the world of architecture, seaweed will be a green material of the future. I am very excited to be part of this wave of discovery and will continue to explore and build seaweed architecture.

Every Drop Matters, Kevin Lot

May 29, 2021 by Peter Terezakis

Name: Kevin Loh School: NYU Tisch School of Arts Major: Film & Television Level: Junior Project Title: Every Drop Matters
Issue Identified: The global water crisis, the lack of awareness of it in America and New York City, along with how a shortage could eventually happen in NYC.

Purpose of Project: To act as a short documentary/PSA that raises awareness on the global water crisis, along with how organizations like WaterAid look to combat it. The documentary’s goal is to be educational, pushing audiences to be grateful for what they have and put in extra effort to spread WaterAid’s mission and live a more sustainable lifestyle.

Achieving Goals: Research on the global water crisis, followed by contacting WaterAid. Then, doing an interview with a worker from WaterAid to gain insight into their mission and the global crisis. Completed this in addition to filming footage of New York City.

Creation: YouTube link is above.

Interaction: The public can interact with the video through YouTube and Instagram.

Results: Comments from viewers include making a shorter, more concise version of the documentary, along with making the credits sequence separate from the last clip so it doesn’t distract from what Ellie is saying. Other viewers were receptive of the message and enjoyed the style and the to-the-point content.

Takeaways: I had a wonderful time talking to Ellie Tillotson at WaterAid. It was great to gain insight to their missions and get stories from WaterAid’s work. I was glad to have been able to get footage and use clips from WaterAid’s YouTube videos as well.

Success: I think there was success in how I was able to keep the documentary short enough that people won’t lose interest. I was able to make it informational but also raise awareness and start a call to action in a way.

Next Time: I’d love to make a longer version as there were many things Ellie Tillotson said that were left on the cutting room floor.