Slater Jewell-Kemker
Award-winning filmmaker, Celebrated
Climate Activist & Storyteller.
YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE
The Rise of the Global
Youth Climate Movement
A lecture-film program
Slater Jewell-Kemker is an award winning filmmaker, celebrated climate activist, storyteller and speaker. Born in Los Angeles to filmmaker parents, Slater has been making films since she was 6. Now based outside of Toronto on a farm, Slater is the youngest ever Resident of the Canadian Film Centre’s Directors Lab.
Her 13 year feature documentary YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE: THE RISE OF THE GLOBAL YOUTH CLIMATE MOVEMENT follows the rise of the global youth climate movement. It’s screened at hundreds of film festivals around the world, premiering at the prestigious Guadalajara Film Festival and Traverse City Film Festival, winning awards at MountainFILM in Telluride, Planet in Focus, FReDD, Pelicam, Buster, Orlando, Sidewalk, BendFILM, San Francisco Green Film Festival and most recently the Protect our Planet Award at the Innsbruck Nature Film Festival. She regularly gives talks and workshops with young people and schools about the power of the youth voice and the importance of storytelling within activism. Her latest panels have taken place with the Redford Center, the Guardian Live, the New York Times Climate Hub at COP26 in Glasgow, Al-Jazeera English, with interviews featured on CNN International, CBC’s the National, CBC’s Here and Now, Sky News, TRT and Global Citizen.
Slater has been recognized by the United Nations for her activism and filmmaking and is a Forbes Millennial on a Mission, as well as the youngest Creative Visions Foundation Dan Eldon Fellow and Global Teen Leader with the We Are Family Foundation.
Slater is a director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer and composer, her entire being hardwired for filmmaking and telling stories. Her past work explores the darker aspects of human nature and finding the beauty within it, playing with and breaking the boundaries of genre filmmaking. Her short films delve into domestic violence, to the death of a child, social isolation and the pandemic, and her sensitivity and compassion are evident and felt deeply by audiences. Her short film STILL premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and was chosen as one of Canada’s Top Ten Short Films, landing her in the Hollywood Reporter’s Next Gen Canadian Filmmakers as one of 15 Filmmakers Under 30 to Watch.
Slater is also an accomplished musician, her vocal and violin tracks appearing in various film and tv scores, most recently as part of CBC Gem’s The New Monuments dance film featuring the National Ballet of Canada and top Toronto dance groups exploring the story of Canada’s colonization to the present day.
With a background of 15 years in the climate, environmental and social justice movements, Slater is taking the next step into environmental storytelling. She’s currently exploring the sacredness of nature and how our survival and adaptation as human beings depends on our ability to rethink our relationship to each other and the planet, falling back in love with the land and life around us. She’s currently in development on a eco-horror feature narrative script and a documentary exploring the connections between fossil fuel extraction and the ongoing truth and reconciliation dialogue between communities of Indigenous and European descent in Canada.
She makes one hell of a bourbon chocolate pecan pie.
Slater Jewell-Kemker is an American-Canadian filmmaker and climate activist. She was born in Los Angeles, California, and has been making films since six years old. Jewell-Kemker first became interested in climate change at age 13. When she was 15 years old, she began production on An Inconvenient Youth (2012), chronicling the rise of the global youth climate movement. The same topic was portrayed in her film Youth Unstoppable (2018), which Jewell-Kemker worked on for 12 years. In 2013, she completed a program at the Canadian Film Centre, elaborating the short film Alice (2013). Her 2014 short film Still was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2014.
Slater Jewell Kemker’s film “YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE has been screend at hundreds of film festivals around the world.
Interview with Slater Jewell-Kemker during the Human Rights Film Festival in Berlin, November 2020
Interview with Slater Jewell-Kemker about her film, "Youth Unstoppable", with CNN Newsroom
Slater Jewell-Kemker with Connect4Climate: We are Youth Unstoppable
At 22-years old Slater Jewell-Kemker makes her debut at The 2014 Toronto International Film Festival with her psychological thriller "Still".
Slater Jewell-Kemker is part of an "exquisite cadaver" feature film featuring nine female filmmakers from around the world.
Katie Eder – FutureCoaltion.org – U.S. teenage climate strike organizer
“Youth Unstoppable is an inside look at where the building blocks of the current youth climate movement came from. There is an important story here that all current youth activists should know. Young people have been calling for climate action for a long time, and this film is an opportunity to see how we were able to get to where we are today.”
MountainFILM Festival – Student Choice Winner – High School Student Judges
“We chose YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE as the winner of the film we feel will most inspire our generation.”
Tariq Al-Olaimy - Bahrain Youth Climate Movement
"This was a story close to my heart, being part of the international youth climate movement... I never received climate change education in school, didn’t receive it in college. UN negotiations were my classroom. One of the beautiful things that I think Slater has given through this movie is the chance to reflect on the human beings we’ve become and to reflect on the movement that we’ve become."
Geoffrey Smith Castlemaine Documentary Film Festival:
“It was a truly brilliant evening! This film will be a key moment in the social revolution that we all need to happen to truly create a sustainable and just society, not only the climate. People were in tears and were so moved.”
Amalen Sathananthar – Malaysian Youth Movement
“I feel quite overwhelmed seeing such a story being told. It’s something so different and really makes you look back at what you've done, only to realize it's not enough and more needs to be done right now. Not just by the people affected but by everyone.
It's not just a fight to save the world, it's a fight to save my home. I don't want my house to sink, I've seen that happen and I don't want it to happen to me.”
Astronaut Chris Hadfield
“Congratulations on the film! Its impact will help sway public opinion for the good of us all. I meant every word I said while we were talking post-film, and I wish you huge success.”
David Suzuki
“When Pearl Harbour happened no one argued about whether this was a Democratic or Republican issue, you had only one choice and that’s what you’re making us face now with your film. It’s your future. With the election coming up next year Climate Change must be THE ISSUE of all the parties. Youth have to be driving this."
Fatima Ibrahim – UKYCC/AVAAZ.org
'Slater has captured the story of a generation with Youth Unstoppable. It was at times hard to distinguish between her journey and my own - I cried with anger, with joy and with hope while watching. I'm so happy someone has finally showcased the beauty, diversity, and resistance of the youth climate movement - and I hope it brings everyone the same sense of hope that I now feel.'
