by Sophia Coleman, Contributing Writer

Two Columbia alumni are set on a mission to bring sustainability to America.

Their documentary, “A Sustainable Reality: Redefining Roots,” directed by Michael Silberman, 24, with cinematographer Mark Fragassi, 24, begins in the most unlikely of places—a former meat-packing facility on Chicago’s South Side.

So far they have over 250 hours of film on various projects around Chicago, and 150 of those hours are on the repurposed facility. Silberman plans to film for eight more years, as he hopes to capture the evolution of the building and its effects upon the community.

This once abandoned pile of scrap metal, now called The Plant, 1400 W. 46th Street, will eventually be transformed into a zero-energy aquaponics farm—not to mention a fish hatchery, microbrewery and a 40,000 square foot eco-friendly kitchen. Everything will be powered by a giant anaerobic digester, which consumes waste from the facility, as well as the waste from neighboring food manufacturers, and turns it into energy used to heat and cool the building.

While the Plant is in its early stages, it currently houses 312 Aquaponics, which will be unveiling their innovative systems at the open house on Aug. 13. The Plant will also be home to New Chicago Brewing Company, led by Jesse and Samuel Evans, who will be tapping their first beer on March 4, 2012.

The Plant, created by entrepreneur and environmentalist John Edel, inspired Silberman and Fragassi to create their documentary because they felt they needed to shed light on a project that has the ability to revitalize the earth.

“We want to show people that this ‘green thinking’ is not just a movement, but the changing of our lifestyle,” Silberman said.

For many terms like “aquaponics” and “anaerobic digester” sound alien, but Melanie Hoekstra, operations manager of The Plant, broke it down into a simple cycle.

“The fish produce waste, which is sent through a filter that takes the ammonia and water and turns it into biologically available nitrogen. The plants, which are sitting on floating racks on a bed of water, absorb this nitrogen and filter the rest of the purified water back into the fish tanks, and the process starts over,” Hoekstra said.

Essentially, the natural circle of life powers the cycle and produces green, organic leafy vegetables as well as hardy fish, free of impurities.

While Silberman and Fragassi plan to make a full-length film on The Plant, for now they are breaking up their hundreds of hours of footage into mini Web episodes. Each will highlight a certain aspect of the facility, as well as other sustainable projects across the Midwest.

“As documentary filmmakers we are trying to bring consciousness and breathe life into things that people may not know about or understand,” Fragassi said. “What I am trying to do as a cinematographer is capture the human aspect of all these incredible growth projects.”

While The Plant is the amateur filmmakers’ focus and central hub of inspiration, the second part of their documentary, “Redefining Roots,” will feature various local businesses that are part of the green community. Their first episode, which aired July 15th on their website RedefiningRoots.com, followed a Chicago organic ice cream distributor called Nice Cream, which creates seasonal handcrafted ice creams from locally sourced ingredients.

“We are going to cover everyone—[from] the very small, like a backyard garden, to the very big, such as corporations that are implementing sustainability into their practices,” Silberman said.

While they do focus on the food aspects of the agro business, they also want to explore other methods, such as actions as simple as repurposing.

Silberman gave the example of Lisa Whiting, the owner of Sifu, 5044 N. Clark St., a design studio that uses everyday items and repurposes them into something new. She teaches classes that are open to the public, which teach people how to reuse items that they previously thought of as trash.

“We want to make people to realize how a community is very much a tribal like, where people connect to one another and feed off one another—a very symbiotic relationship,” Silberman said.

They said they hope their website, RedefiningRoots.com, in addition to being a host for their episodes, can be an interactive space where people can connect and share ideas of positive environmental change.

They will also be taking their project outside of the Midwest, where they will feature businesses and people who have innovative ways of helping the planet.

“There are places across the U.S. that aren’t implementing green ideas and sustainability, and we need to reach out to them too,” Silberman said.

However, in order to do so, they need more funding. So far Silberman and Fragassi have invested approximately $3,000 of their own money into this project, and with the help of Kickstarter.com and other fundraisers, they hope to gain at least $11,000.

“People aren’t really motivated to give money to something that’s not a toy,” Silberman said. “An iPhone case that turns into a beer bottle opener raises thousands overnight—but then we have an independent film that can’t gain enough backing.”

While they have raised about $4,500 for their project they still need around $7,000 more to receive even a single penny of the pledged donations, due to the way Kickstarter operates.

Kickstarter.com is a site where projects can gain backing from anyone willing to donate, however it works through “all or nothing funding,” and if the project does not reach its goal before time runs out, none of the money is received.

“We don’t want to have to convince people that this is something amazing that they should be a part of,” Silberman said.

A “Kickstarter Bonanza” took place on Aug. 7, which served as a final attempt in raising enough donations in order to be granted the Kickstarter funds. The deadline for Kickstarter fundraising through the website is Aug. 12.

Silberman said that they would also create a new fundraising profile on IndieGoGo.com, which is similar to Kickstarter, except that donations are received as soon as they are given.

If people can’t manage to donate, Silberman insists that any form of help will be welcomed.

“We want people to get in touch with us and volunteer. People from Columbia, photographers, film majors, journalism students—having your help would be unbelievably beneficial,” Silberman said. “We want it to be a community-based effort.”