CITY OF TREES will have its world premiere as an official selection at the 13th annual American Conservation Film Festival on October 25 in Shepherdstown, WV.

Today we're excited to announce the release of our new City of Trees teaser trailer! Hope you enjoy!

This teaser trailer will help share an introduction to the City of Trees story as we move into the final stages of the editorial process. A big thank you goes out to our talented friends at Wheelhouse Creative for all their help over the past several months creating the trailer.

In the next installment in our partner spotlight series, we talk with City of Trees director Brandon Kramer about the invaluable collaboration and mentorship Kartemquin Films has provided to Meridian Hill Pictures. 

In the wake of our overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter campaign where 503 people made contributions to help finish City of Trees, Meridian Hill Pictures’ first feature-length documentary, we’d like to take a moment to highlight some of the early supporters and collaborators who have made the film possible from the outset. The first in our series of partner spotlights is the Bancroft Foundation.

On the night before New Year’s Eve, dozens of City of Trees backers gathered around our studio’s computer screens as the final minutes of our campaign came to a close. People furiously texted, called and emailed friends and family to make last-minute pledges. As we all joined in the final countdown, we watched and cheered as the backer #503(!) made the final pledge! It was perfectly poetic that the last backer was none other than Leah Edwards, our former student from our Sitar Youth Documentary Program and co-director of the award-winning MHP film Doing it for Me.

At our closing party, we asked guests to share why our film matters to them. Here’s a sampling of some of their responses:

Thanks to the support of our incredible community, during the first 20 days of our Kickstarter campaign, we raised more than $35,000 from over 250 backers! The community behind City of Treesis rapidly growing.

Last month City of Trees' producer Lance Kramer was awarded the 29th Annual Mayor’s Arts Award in the Innovation in the Arts category. The Mayor’s Arts Awards are “the highest honors conferred by the District of Columbia in recognition of artistic excellence and service."