Our Accomplishments through the years
- May 2006 - George Pakenham dismayed by idling vehicles outside his NY apartment, polluting his air
- September 2006 - Started recording encounters with trucks, cars and trucks and over 5 year notes nearly 3000 engagements. Website and social media campaign launched
- December 2007 - Demo to documentary produced – 12 minutes
- Summer 2007 - Initial documentary footage captured
- Summer 2007 - Alliance with Environmental Defense Fund formulated to address the idling engine problem
- February 2009 - Mayor Bloomberg signed new idling bill – updating 1971 law
- May 2009 - New Yorker article by Ben McGrath creates worldwide attention
- Summer 2009 - Other stories in local CBS TV, NPR, BBC radio
- Fall 2012 - The documentary film Idle Threat is completed and has World Premiere at the Woodstock film festival. Many other festivals follow including The Environmental Film Festival of our Nations’ Capital. Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Wild and Scenic in California. The film goes on Wild and Scenic nationwide film circuit.
- Spring 2013 - Big Nose Big City, companion children’s book to the film, is launched – Available on Amazon Idle threat also available on Amazon
- Summer 2013 - 5-year contract with a film distributor s signed and the film appears on KCET, public TV in Los Angeles
- 2013 - Idle Threat shown to various governmental agencies in NYC. The effort begins to create a bill to enable concerned citizens the right to submit evidence to the Department of Environmental Protection and received 50% of the $350 dollar fine. Hence, bill 717a was announced on the steps of city fall, winter 2014. Other global interviews and articles, including 2nd radio show on NPR. Also acclaimed on PARADE magazine that Pakenham is Eco Man of the Year in the State of NY
- Dec 19, 2017 - Bill 717a is voted on in City Council and passes 47 – 3. Effective date Feb 18, 2018
- June 2018 - 2nd New Yorker article by Ben McGrath is published
- Summer 2018 - NY Post, NBC TV news, CBS, all run stories on the new law
- Fall 2018 - Yale University runs a story
- Winter 2019 - HBO Vice TV picks up the Yale story and creates their own 9-minute story for cable. It gets 1.4 million views on their YouTube channel and 4.2 million views on their Facebook page
- Summer 2019 - Berlin based TV show, Galileo, sends crew to NYC to shoot their own story. (9 million viewers in Europe), 2nd BBC radio interview. Idle Threat posted on YouTube for a free download. Formulation of VERDANSA as a nonprofit entity to create a smartphone app to handle file formulation for the DEP of NY.
- March 2020 - Launch of Smartphone App
The Woodstock Film Festival is glorious a 4-day event filled with film and music venues. This year, it began on October 11th, in and around the charming village of Woodstock NY which is nestled at the foot of the Catskill Mountains, 2 hours north of NYC in Ulster County just off the Hudson River.
A month before the Festival, I hired a PR agent to promote the Woodstock’s World Premiere of my film, Idle Threat. The PR agent was Gary Springer, a second-generation PR guru with offices at 44Th Street and Broadway in NYC, just off Times Square. I gave him 15 DVD copies of the film. In mid-September, he began mailing them out to his string of contacts in the media – newspapers, magazines, radio, TV.
The Woodstock kick-off cocktail party was September 19th on the lower east side of NY at a watering hole aptly named -Libation. Gary was there and had me shake hands with promo professionals as nearby as Bloomberg Media, as a distant at SINO- TV out of China. And in the days preceding the Woodstock event itself, Gary lined up with interviews with NY1 TV (Time Warner) as well as the Wall Street Journal plus numerous radio and print reporters. Gary got the word out, indeed!
Then, came October 11th, the day of the World Premiere. That morning in the local Times Herald Record, was an interview with Miera Blaustein, Executive Director of the Festival. Ms. Blaustein recommended that Idle Threat was the #1 film not to miss out of 130 films. Did Springer have anything to do with that? I’ll never quite know for sure.
That the very next day, Gary found himself in the front seat of his car, in the parking lot across from the Film Festival headquarters. He was on his cell phone, speaking with his girlfriend in Florida. It was brisk outside a steady north wind invading the valley from the mountain tops.
His cell phone call was interrupted by a rap on the car window. A woman motioned for him to roll it down. She said “sir, I watched a film yesterday at the festival. Idle Threat. It’s about the nuisance of engine idling. Are you aware your engine is on now… and you’re talking on the phone? Going nowhere!! Could you shut your engine off, please?"
So, now I write this story in my blog. I suppose that Gary Springer can measure his success in promoting the film…in an entirely new and profound way.
Great working with you and your team, sir. But remember to just… shut it off.