Greg Reitman the founder of the Blue Water Film Festival. Described by Movie Maker Magazine as “one of the top ten filmmakers producing content that impacts our world” Greg’s production company Blue Water Entertainment focuses on environmentally conscious broad-based entertainment. Along with Mr. Reitman’s background in production and distribution, his passion for philanthropy strengthens the Blue Water Film Festival team’s commitment to using film to serve the greater good.
Widely regarded as Hollywood’s “Green Filmmaker” Greg produced the Sundance Audience Award-winning feature documentary FUEL (“A vital, superbly assembled documentary” — Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times). FUEL played at dozens of film festivals, won numerous awards, short-listed for the Academy Awards, released theatrically and aired on CNBC.
He recently served as Executive Producer on the feature film, CRYPTO starring KurtnRussell, Beau Knapp, Alexis Bledel, Luke Hemsworth, released theatrically by LionsnGate (2019) and streaming on Hulu.
What are causes that are important to Greg today?
Greg really cares about his water and aquatic life and so he’s made a personal commitment to the Oceans over the next decade by joining the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development coupled with the expansion and creation of the Blue Water Institute, based in Adelaide, Australia. The philanthropic mission of the Blue Water Institute has two purposes. The mission of the Blue Water Film Festival is to encourage attendees to think broadly about how climate change affects planet Earth and think deeply about the universal concerns and actions needed to bring us into balance. 50% of all film selections are non-US productions, helping to fulfill the festival mission of promoting cross-cultural understanding through film. Next year’s Blue Water Film Festival will be held June 8-11, 2023 in San Diego, CA.
Secondly, the Blue Water Summit is designed to encourage our global family to think broadly about the ongoing effects on our oceans’ pollution, climate change – and how changes with the Oceans have far reaching impacts worldwide. Our Oceans operate as a single interconnected organism and what impacts locally affects globally. The Blue Water Summit is held annually in Kangaroo Island on June 8th in celebration of World Oceans Day. The Summit curates ocean explorers, filmmakers, educators, and scientists to help raise awareness of our ocean ecosystems in an effort to bring them back into balance. These two philanthropic events are the grassroots of our global call-to-action to get civic, corporate and governance engaged with the climate, water, oceans – the world’s most vital assets. As Captain Paul Watson states, “If the Oceans die, we die.” I feel compelled that we each have a contribution here, and for me this is the one that I’m fully committed to.
Jules: Tell us about your latest film, Rooted in Peace.
Greg: Rooted in Peace is a self-inquiry in understanding ourselves and what drives us to connect. For me, I was horrified coming back from the 1st Gulf War in Israel and wearing a gas mask. Though the war only lasted two weeks, it left an indelible mark on me for a lifetime. Thirty years later, I remember walking through John F. Kennedy airport security and almost getting arrested for not giving up my bottled war. It was right after 911 and laws pertaining to freedom of speech, 1st amendment rights were changing fast. The America that I knew and grew up in and loved was changing fast. It brought me front and center with this war conflict and launched me to tell my personal peace story. I had an opportunity to meet and interview some of the greatest minds, musicians, doctors and thought leaders of our time from Pete Seeger, Ted Turner, Nobel Peace Lureate Maired Maguire, David Lynch, William McDonough, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr. Mark Hyman, Paul Hawken to name a few. It was here where I had my biggest epiphany as Einstein E=Mc2 mine was H to 3rd power. Healthy mind, healthy heart, and a healthy body equals a healthy world.
To truly be in peace you must experience the transcendent which I found in nature. I also was fortunate to be introduced to Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, who talked about the meaning of peace. His grandfather constantly reminded him that peace begins with respect. Respect for yourself, parents, siblings, extended family, co-workers, friends, all the way to nature. If there’s no respect, then there’s no peace. My greatest satisfaction with this creative endeavor concluded with me having my book published by Llewellyn Publisher and winning three books awards – “Best Inspirational Memoir,” “Best Spiritual Author,” and “Best Spiritual Real Life Story” in addition to Brilliance Publishing, an Amazon company publishing the audible. The book serves as a companion to the DVD and provides a greater index of knowledge allowing me to really flush out certain sections to complete the full story. During Covid, there were many people who read the book and called me personally to thank me as they were dealing with their own internal demons. I tend to identify them as imbalances that need to be worked out, and I’m happy to have had the opportunity to share this film, book, and audible experience with the world which syndicates nationally on PBS, streams on GAIA, and is available on I-tunes, amazon and other online channels.
Jules: Your award-winning feature documentary FUEL won numerous awards, and short-listed for the Academy Awards. What made this project so special to you?
Greg: I had just finished and was releasing my first documentary film, “Hollywood’s Magical Island – Catalina” which premiered at the Temecula Film Festival. It was here where I met author and filmmaker Josh Tickell with his short film, “Veggie Van Voyage.” The festival director had paired us up at the festival. Josh opened with his short film, which was then followed by screening my feature film. During this time, I learned about biodiesel and renewable energy. I always had a green thumb and was active on my university campus back at Amherst, however that was almost a decade ago. We spent the weekend together which sprouted the beginning of our friendship. I never imagined producing Fuel. We talked for over a year and one day I came to his back office in Venice, CA I’ll never forget that day. Josh was out in the garage making a home grown biodiesel fuel. I decided to make a few outbound investment calls and raised $100,000 that day. I called my lawyer, Randy Paul and before we knew it we were in production. We headed down to New Orleans on the bayou with a small five man crew. It was the beginning of my awareness of understanding the impact of big oil and how people of color can be exploited and marginalized. Our production team all had a deep collective purpose of exposing this truth and educating the public on the ruthless behavior of oil companies and providing scalable alternative solutions in the form of renewable energy. During that time, the entertainment industry was also starting to take notice of the documentary genre. I worked on that film for four years, others longer. To be candid, there’s not a better feeling when your film gets selected to the Sundance Film Festival. 10,000 entries. 16 slots. 1% chance of being selected. It’s like winning a lottery ticket. Always grateful to Robbie Little and MJ Peckos who brought the film to fellow Sundance programmer, Caroline Libresco. However, winning the 2008 Audience Award was definitely a hallmark moment for me.
Jules: You recently served as Executive Producer on the feature film, CRYPTO starring Kurt Russell, Beau Knapp, Alexis Bledel, and Luke Hemsworth. What led you to this project? Tell us about the film.
Greg: I just finished teaching at NYU-Tisch in the fall of 2019 and was looking to expand my production company portfolio from non-fiction to fiction films. Blue Water just optioned a few action thrillers and we were looking to expand into the action genre. Prior, I had worked in tech and was savvy to see the emergence and convergence of new currency exchanges such as bitcoin, ethereum, and crypto. Fate is where you happen to be at the right place and the right time, however as a producer you do need to know when to move fast when an opportunity presents itself. I had an opportunity to meet producer Siena Oberman at the “Kindergarten Teacher” Sundance premiere party. We got acquainted and afterwards she followed-up and sent me a few scripts. I pulled “Crypto” from the pile and saw that Clay Epstein from Film Mode was handling worldwide sales. Clay and I had worked together on Fuel; so, I felt comfortable getting involved. Yale Productions was in need of a bridge loan. Blue Water was able to source the funding and that was the beginning for me entering the fiction business as an Executive Producer. Personally, I’m also a huge fan of Kurt Russell and loved the story twist of this Russian Spy thriller. It was released by Lions Gate and streams currently on Hulu.
Jules: What have been your proudest moments of your career?
Greg: There were many moments I’ve had throughout my career. First, screening my first documentary film, “Hollywood Magical Island -Catalina ” narrated by Peter Coyote in the historic Casino Ballroom, on Catalina Island, the first motion picture theater with acoustic sound built and funded by William Wrigley, Jr. Second, “Fuel” winning the Sundance Audience Award, and thirdly debut “Rooted in Peace” at the United Nations. But unequivocally, my proudest moment was teaching as a professor at NYU-Tisch. At the end of the semester, I had a number of students confide in me, sharing and thanking me, by saying,”This was the best class they’ve taken at NYU.” That really hit home for me especially being from New York.
Jules: What’s next for you?
Greg: My next chapter is for me to establish myself as a formidable feature film screenwriter and film director. This summer I co-wrote a screenplay, called “Finding Fellini”, a coming of age teen comedy drama that takes place in Florence, Italy. It’s a modern day “Breakfast Club” based on a true story that I
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