Lights, Camera, Outside: How Documentaries Can Change Who Finds Connection in Nature

A redwood tree holds thousands of years in its bark, its height, its stillness. We feel something when we stand next to one—something researchers are increasingly able to measure and name—no matter our outdoor expertise. We exhale. We sense connection. For many of us, that connection leads to a sense of responsibility and a call to action.
 
Of course, that connection can’t happen without access to nature. The urgent need to make the outdoors more readily available and inviting to everyone, regardless of skin color, gender, class or ability, is central to the partnership between The Redford Center and the REI Cooperative Action Fund. Together, these organizations are investing in film as a force for good by coproducing a multiyear short-documentary film series following organizations whose work brings people into the natural world. Once out there, entire communities can become more rooted—and more committed to our planet.

One of the only U.S. nonprofits devoted to producing, developing and investing in environmental filmmaking, The Redford Center has distributed more than $40 million to 400+ film projects through grants and fiscal sponsorship. Founded in 2005 by legendary actor-director Robert Redford and his son James, the Center seeks to create real-world impact through feature documentary and short film projects. One such program, the Nature Connection, features stories that “illuminate the ways people experience and sustain relationships with the natural world,” says Heather Fipps, Redford Center program strategist, “and the benefits, both individually and collectively, of that connection.”

Since 2021, the community-driven nonprofit REI Cooperative Action Fund has been giving grants to outdoor-focused nonprofits that work to increase access to the outdoors. Partnering with The Redford Center to commission and produce stories about these organizations in 2026, then, was a natural fit. The films serve as magnifier and amplifier: documentary as proof of concept, as invitation, as ripple effect.

The process started with REI Fund grantee organizations submitting story ideas pulled from their own programs and participants. The Redford Center then matched each story to a filmmaker based on personal connection to the subject and storytelling potential; from there, all teams worked together on story treatment before filming began. The REI Cooperative Action Fund helped back the production budget, while The Redford Center contributed its filmmaker network, story-development process and impact framework.

Plans for future films are already in action. “We’re hoping that this [program] can be a continual drumbeat of nature connection content,” says Dom Olivo, Redford Center program manager, “so that folks can really see what nature access can do on a personal level.”

The collaboration’s first three films debut this summer on the REI Co-op YouTube channel, starting with a portrait of the New Jersey–based nonprofit Boyz N The Wood, which brings Black men into the outdoors to foster brotherhood and personal development. 

Learn more about the films and their release dates below, and watch them at YouTube.com/REI.

What’s Next—and How to Watch

Films are only impactful if people see them, Fipps points out—and filmmaker resources alone are far too limited. What’s more, success isn’t simply about audience numbers; it’s about reaching communities that might see themselves reflected, inspiring them to action.

Rather than releasing each film to compete for limited distribution bandwidth, The Redford Center built a “collective impact” model, where the filmmakers, the Cooperative Action Fund grantee organizations, the Center and REI Co-op amplify one another’s reach simultaneously—films will be screened everywhere from elementary schools to REI stores. “We’re aiming to provide solutions and collective support,” says Tina Barseghian, Redford Center director of communications. “We’re basically a force multiplier.”

The pilot covers three films in year one; year two is already underway, with four films in production and an expanded budget. Grantee organizations have submitted story ideas, matchmaking with filmmakers is in progress, and The Redford Center expects the next round to be ready for release by spring 2027.

All three 2026 documentaries are set to stream free at YouTube.com/REI—and The Redford Center will also offer a community screenings toolkit for organizations, schools or anyone else who wants to host a local screening or film event.

The Films

Boyz N The Wood: Resilience in the Redwoods transports us to the base of those same ancient trees, where we meet Boyz N The Wood founders CJ Goulding and Ron Griswell. The organization seeks to create space in the outdoors specifically for Black men, a community historically underrepresented in the outdoor industry.

The film, directed by Faith Briggs Rose, follows a group of men gathering among the California redwoods for breathwork, reflection and brotherhood, asking the viewer a simple, radical question: What happens when Black men are simply given space to breathe? The answer, as the film shows, reaches far beyond a weekend in the forest. “Healing moves through families, friendships and communities,” the filmmakers write. “Healed men heal communities.” Released: June 18th, 2026

In Marcus & Me: Connecting with Nature in Steel City, directors Dom and Nadia Gill follow two Marcuses—one a mentor, one a kid—through Pittsburgh’s unexpected outdoor landscape. The film spotlights the Outdoor Inclusion Coalition climbing program, run by “Big Marcus,” which uses the city’s industrial-era infrastructure (bridges, walls, overlooked rail corridors) as playground and proving ground, reframing how underserved communities can get outdoors.

The latest OIC goal, as shown in the film, is the Brilliant Line, a proposed recreation corridor that would transform the city’s overlooked urban framework into something more. Viewers follow the film’s direct line to 1940s and ‘50s civic leader Alma Illery, who fought for Pittsburgh’s Black and brown communities’ right to the outdoors. That fight, the film argues, is ongoing. Released: July 16th, 2026

The Nature Dose zooms out to outdoor science and research, following leaders from the Nature and Health Alliance—scientists, storytellers and community advocates—as they build a case and a movement around a deceptively simple premise: 10 minutes outdoors, even in a city park or on a balcony, measurably improves mood, lowers blood pressure and resets attention. Directed by Andrew Nadkarni, the film touches on nature prescriptions, virtual reality research and grassroots green space restoration in Buffalo, New York, but it’s less about escapism than about equity. Urban planning decisions have systematically stripped communities of outdoor access, and those health consequences are measurable. The Nature Dose argues that access to nature isn’t a luxury; it’s a public health issue. Release date: August 6th, 2026