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Generation·Orange

Generation Orange

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Teaser

First look

Synopsis

Twice in three years, wildfire smoke has swallowed the New York City skyline in an orange haze — most recently in July 2026 and before that in June 2023. Shot during those three years in a combination of observational vérité, interview and archival footage, Generation Orange is an intimate coming-of-age story following six adolescent New Yorkers grappling with the dawning reality of a less habitable earth. Luca, Helen, Noa, Emma, Keanu and Adé are leading members of the youth climate movement, the youngest only 15 when filming begins. From organizing a march through the streets of Manhattan attended by 75,000 people to lobbying state legislators in Albany under a federal government that denies the climate crisis exists, the group's determined youthful optimism gives way to disillusioned uncertainty around their ability to save the world. Through a futuristic, found-footage style, Generation Orange blurs the line between dystopia and documentary, raising unsettling questions about how—and on what timeline—the film and its audience truly coexist.

The characters

Six lives, one reel — drag or tap a name to move through the cast.

Luca
01 / 06

Luca

Age when filming began 15

The Record · 1856–2026

A Warming
Record

A heating world, end to end — and the six lives filming inside it.

01 / 371856–1859
The worldObservation

The greenhouse effect is proven in a lab.

American amateur scientist Eunice Foote and British physicist John Tyndall show that CO₂ lets sunlight through but traps the heat Earth radiates back out, like a blanket.

CO₂ 285 ppm+0.00 °C
02 / 371896
The worldObservation

Coal is linked to global warming.

Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius realizes that doubling CO₂ would warm the planet by several degrees and names industrial coal burning as a source — though he assumed it would take thousands of years to take effect.

CO₂ 295 ppm−0.05 °C
03 / 371938
The worldObservation

The first evidence of global warming.

Guy Callendar, a British steam engineer studying climate as a hobby, compiles weather-station records showing the world has measurably warmed over 50 years in step with rising CO₂ — and is widely doubted at the time.

CO₂ 305 ppm+0.00 °C
04 / 371958
The worldObservation

The Keeling Curve begins.

American geochemist Charles Keeling starts measuring CO₂ continuously atop Mauna Loa in Hawaii, turning “CO₂ is probably rising” into an undeniable, still-climbing dataset.

CO₂ 315 ppm+0.10 °C
05 / 371965
The worldDenial & Delay

Government and industry are warned.

A White House task force commissioned by President Johnson reports that by the year 2000, rising CO₂ “could be deleterious from the point of view of human beings.” Its findings are shared with fossil-fuel leaders at the American Petroleum Institute's annual meeting that same year.

CO₂ 320 ppm+0.10 °C
06 / 371968–1988
Their New YorkDenial & Delay

Fossil-fuel companies knowingly double down.

Exxon, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute commission internal studies that confirm the threat of global warming. Yet in 1980, API lobbies to triple world coal production.

CO₂ 345 ppm+0.25 °C
07 / 371991
The worldDenial & Delay

“Reposition global warming as theory (not fact).”

A direct quote describing the strategy behind a deception campaign coal and utility companies launch through ads targeting “older, less-educated males who are not typically information seekers” and “younger, lower-income women” in areas powered by coal.

CO₂ 356 ppm+0.40 °C
08 / 37March 1995
The worldPolicy

The first UN climate conference convenes in Berlin.

Chaired by German environment minister Angela Merkel, the inaugural Conference of the Parties establishes that developed nations' emissions efforts are inadequate and that binding targets must be negotiated — the Berlin Mandate.

CO₂ 361 ppm+0.42 °C
09 / 371997
The worldPolicy

The Kyoto Protocol.

The first treaty with binding emissions targets, built around “common but differentiated responsibilities” between industrialized and developing nations, is rejected by the US — exposing the inequality inherent to the climate crisis.

CO₂ 363 ppm+0.48 °C
10 / 37October 29, 2012
Their New YorkImpact

Hurricane Sandy hits New York.

A 14-foot storm surge floods the subway, kills dozens, and causes roughly $60 billion in economic damage.

CO₂ 394 ppm+0.85 °C
11 / 37December 12, 2015
The worldPolicy

The Paris Agreement.

195 countries sign, agreeing to cap warming at 1.5°C — a major win for the climate movement. President Donald Trump later moves to withdraw the US during both of his terms.

CO₂ 401 ppm+0.95 °C
12 / 37August 2018
Their New YorkUprising

Greta Thunberg's first school strike.

The 15-year-old Swedish student sits in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks; she and fellow strikers coin #FridaysForFuture, inspiring a global movement.

CO₂ 408 ppm+1.02 °C
13 / 37October 2018
The worldObservation

The IPCC narrows in on 1.5°C.

A special report identifies 1.5°C as the threshold beyond which climate impacts sharply worsen, and finds that staying below it requires cutting emissions 45% by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050.

CO₂ 408 ppm+1.02 °C
14 / 37September 20, 2019
Their New YorkUprising

Thunberg leads NYC climate action.

After sailing across the Atlantic on an emissions-free racing yacht to avoid the carbon footprint of flying, Thunberg leads tens of thousands of protesters in a march through Manhattan. A few days later, at the UN Climate Action Summit, Thunberg confronts world leaders with her famous “How dare you” speech.

CO₂ 411 ppm+1.05 °C
15 / 37September 1, 2021
Their New YorkImpact

Hurricane Ida floods New York.

Record rainfall drowns more than a dozen people in illegal basement apartments, shifting the city's focus from coastal storm surge to inland flash flooding and housing inequality.

CO₂ 416 ppm+1.10 °C
16 / 37August 2022
The worldPolicy

The US Inflation Reduction Act.

Roughly $370 billion in clean-energy incentives, signed by President Joe Biden, signals a strategic shift from taxing carbon to subsidizing alternatives.

CO₂ 418 ppm+1.15 °C
17 / 37November 2022
The worldPolicy

COP27 agrees to a loss-and-damage fund.

Wealthy nations finally accept compensating poorer countries for climate damage — a demand 30 years in the making.

CO₂ 419 ppm+1.15 °C
18 / 37June 2023
Their New YorkImpact

Wildfire smoke turns New York skies orange.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires gives NYC one of the worst air-quality days in the city's recorded history, making climate impacts visible and physical to millions at once.

CO₂ 421 ppm+1.35 °C
19 / 37August 2023
Generation OrangeUprising

Teens defeat Montana — and Generation Orange begins.

After 16 young Montanans sue their state, its Supreme Court affirms their constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment. Later that month, filmmaker Kate Coiro begins attending Fridays for Future NYC meetings — at first without a camera — to build trust with the six adolescent activists who become the film's characters.

CO₂ 421 ppm+1.38 °CGeneration Orange
20 / 37September 2023
Generation OrangeUprising

The March to End Fossil Fuels.

FFF NYC and partner organizations lead 75,000 people through Manhattan ahead of the UN summit — generally described as the largest US climate demonstration since 2019.

CO₂ 421 ppm+1.40 °C
21 / 37December 2023
Generation OrangePolicy

Emma and Keanu attend COP28 in Dubai.

The first UN climate conference whose official assessment of global progress explicitly calls for an end to fossil fuels.

CO₂ 422 ppm+1.45 °CGeneration Orange
22 / 372024
The worldImpact

The first calendar year above 1.5°C.

A single year isn't the same as breaching the Paris Agreement — which is measured over decades — but 2024 is the warmest year ever recorded on Earth.

CO₂ 424 ppm+1.55 °C
23 / 37April 19, 2024
Generation OrangeUprising

Fridays for Future NYC marches on Brooklyn Bridge.

Generation Orange follows student organizers leading a school walkout timed just before NYC Climate Week, marching from Foley Square in Manhattan to Borough Hall in Brooklyn to demand an end to fossil fuel production.

CO₂ 425 ppm+1.55 °CGeneration Orange
24 / 37June 2024
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange

Emma, Keanu and Noa graduate high school.

CO₂ 425 ppm+1.55 °CGeneration Orange
25 / 37December 2024
Generation OrangePolicy

New York enacts the Climate Change Superfund Act.

After months of lobbying by FFF NYC and other groups, Governor Kathy Hochul signs a law requiring large fossil-fuel companies to pay $3 billion a year for 25 years into a climate-adaptation fund — and it is immediately challenged in court.

CO₂ 425 ppm+1.55 °C
26 / 37January 5, 2025
Their New YorkPolicy

Congestion pricing starts in Manhattan.

The program charges drivers to enter lower Manhattan, reducing traffic, improving air quality, and funding transit — the first congestion charge in the United States.

CO₂ 427 ppm+1.50 °C
27 / 37January 20, 2025
The worldPolicy

Day-one executive orders reverse federal climate policy.

President Trump declares a national energy emergency; orders government agencies to immediately stop disbursing funds for clean energy; revokes the US International Climate Finance Plan; halts all new offshore wind leasing across the Outer Continental Shelf; and initiates the nation's second withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. During the next two years of his term, Trump systematically reopens vast amounts of public land to oil and gas extraction, despite the US being the largest historic emitter of CO₂ worldwide.

CO₂ 427 ppm+1.50 °C
28 / 37Spring 2025
The worldDenial & Delay

The federal government stops producing climate science.

Tens of thousands of federal workers are dismissed from agencies including EPA, NOAA, the National Science Foundation and the Forest Service; nearly 400 scientists are released from the National Climate Assessment, the quadrennial report Congress mandates; and the EPA eliminates its Office of Research and Development entirely.

CO₂ 427 ppm+1.50 °C
29 / 37June 2025
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange

Helen graduates high school.

CO₂ 427 ppm+1.50 °CGeneration Orange
30 / 37December 19, 2025
Generation OrangePolicy

New York repeals the “100-foot rule.”

Governor Hochul signs legislation ending a 40-year-old requirement that all utility ratepayers subsidize the first 100 feet of gas line for new hookups, shifting that cost onto the applicant — a central pillar of the NY HEAT Act that FFF NYC lobbied for in Albany.

CO₂ 428 ppm+1.50 °C
31 / 37January 27, 2026
The worldPolicy

The US withdraws from the Paris Agreement.

The first of many climate policy changes announced during Donald Trump's second presidential term takes one year to actually enact. The Trump administration also announces it will leave the underlying 1992 UNFCCC treaty, removing the US from international climate negotiations entirely.

CO₂ 429 ppm+1.50 °C
32 / 37June 2026
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange

Luca graduates high school.

CO₂ 429 ppm+1.50 °CGeneration Orange
33 / 37July 2026
Generation OrangeImpact

Wildfire smoke returns to New York skies.

Canadian wildfire smoke again obscures the city skyline — and marks the end of production for Generation Orange.

CO₂ 429 ppm+1.50 °CGeneration Orange
34 / 37Late 2026 — planned
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange

Generation Orange enters the festival circuit.

With production wrapped, the finished film goes out to festivals — the first chance for audiences beyond the crew to sit with these six lives.

CO₂ 430 ppm+1.50 °CGeneration OrangeProjected
35 / 372027 — planned
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange

The film premieres.

A first public run — screenings where the characters, now a year or two older, can watch their younger selves argue with a warming world.

CO₂ 432 ppm+1.51 °CGeneration OrangeProjected
36 / 372027–2028 — planned
Generation OrangeGeneration Orange

A van-based screening tour.

The plan: load the film into a van and bring it to the places the story is about — community screenings, schools, and towns living the same smoke-and-heat summers.

CO₂ 434 ppm+1.52 °CGeneration OrangeProjected
37 / 37Projected — July 2029
The worldObservation

The 1.5°C carbon budget runs out.

On the current emissions path, scientists project the remaining carbon budget for holding warming to 1.5°C is exhausted around here — the line the whole record has been climbing toward.

CO₂ 437 ppm+1.50 °CProjected

End of record · for now

The fever has not broken. The people who spent their adolescence trying to break it are only now becoming adults — and the record is still being written.

Open the full-screen record ↗
04Impact

Where it goes next

Filming is finished; the work of reaching people is just beginning. Here's how we plan to move Generation Orange from the edit bay into the world — and what we want it to change.

01 · Premiere

The festival run

Our aim is a festival premiere that puts the film in front of programmers, press, and audiences — then a circuit of climate, youth, and documentary festivals to carry it outward.

02 · Screenings

Community & campus

A host-a-screening model built for the people the film is about: schools, universities, houses of worship, and community groups running their own showings, each paired with a conversation.

03 · Education

In the classroom

We plan to build a discussion guide and pair with youth-climate and educational partners so the film can live inside curricula — where the next generation of organizers actually is.

04 · Movement

Screen to action

The goal isn't only to be watched. Each screening is designed to hand the audience a next step — a local group, a piece of legislation, a way to convert attention into pressure.

The Filmmakers

The people behind Generation Orange.

Scroll ▾

Portrait of Kate Coiro
01

Kate Coiro

Director & Producer

Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, Kate Coiro has been documenting the effects of human-induced climate change since she was a teenager, when the threat of global warming was still considered controversial. In journalism school at Northeastern University, Kate taught herself the art of low-budget documentary filmmaking to capture undeniable evidence in her surroundings: from sea-level rise near her campus in Boston, to record-breaking bushfires in southeast Australia. Kate's early short films positioned her to secure grant funding for her senior thesis, a feature-length documentary created in close partnership with the Massachusett Tribe of Ponkapoag, juxtaposing ancient indigenous wisdom with Boston's bureaucratic and often misinformed strategies for addressing the effects of climate change.

After graduating with a BA in journalism and a minor in business administration, Kate moved to New York City, where her passion for documentary filmmaking evolved into a career. Working with award-winning directors at the top of their craft, she has contributed to several feature-length films including "Folktales," which premiered at Sundance and was shortlisted for an Oscar in 2025, and "The Carman Family Deaths," which was distinguished as the #1 movie on Netflix, globally, that same year. Currently, Kate is on a full-time contract with Vice TV, producing a documentary series about American gangs that will be released on cable next year.

Despite her professional success, Kate's passion for documenting the effects of human-induced climate change remains true to her roots. In New York City, home to the nation's largest school system, adolescents are uniquely positioned to lead the next generation of climate activists — even as juvenile climate anxiety reaches an unprecedented high. Generation Orange is Kate's urgent attempt to raise awareness of the immense loss humans have already suffered as a result of fossil fuel consumption and to inspire a future generation of changemakers to give our planet the priority it deserves.

What psychological burden does this movement impose on the young people expected to stand at its front lines?— Kate Coiro
Portrait of Reginald Brown Jr.
02

Reginald Brown Jr.

Marketing Consultant

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Tampa Bay, Florida, Reginald Brown Jr. began his professional filmmaking career at 18, filming for acclaimed artist and producer Jon Bellion, who has received four Grammy nominations. That opportunity established Reginald’s foundation in professional production. He later expanded his creative training at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Since then, he has developed a multidisciplinary practice spanning filmmaking, editing, creative direction, marketing strategy, and audience engagement.

Over 12 years, Reginald’s work has spanned social impact, professional sports, entertainment, and branded storytelling. As a Marketing Director, he led a 2020 campaign that raised more than half a million dollars in under six months during the COVID pandemic. Reginald has built relationships with private funders and nonprofit partners to secure funding for six documentary projects and help move them into production. Within the Atlanta Hawks organization, he served as the sole video producer for its NBA G League and NBA 2K League franchises, overseeing the complete video operation for both. He also served as the main editor for all six episodes of Protect the Bag and as unit photographer. The Experian series featured Grammy Award winner Lecrae and reached more than 10 million people. As founder of Concretize Studio, Reginald has worked with the NBA, WNBA, Amazon, Toyota, PGA TOUR, Experian, and Reach Records.

Reginald brings that experience to Generation Orange as Marketing Consultant. He leads the film’s public identity, website, teaser, official trailer, fundraising strategy, audience development, publicity, festival strategy, and outreach. His role connects cinematic storytelling with the strategy required to attract viewers, secure support, and sustain momentum. Reginald is helping position Generation Orange for cultural reach, financial support, and lasting impact. His goal is to make the stories of young climate activists impossible to ignore and ensure that responsibility for the climate crisis does not rest solely on the generation inheriting it.

The camera can preserve what happened, but the story must change what happens next.— Reginald Brown Jr.
Enter the record →Meet the characters →
05Get Involved

Finish the film

Filming is complete — three years in the making. Generation Orange is now in post-production. What's left are the finishing funds that carry it to the screen.

To bring the film to screen$50Kthe full finishing goal, rounded
Still to raise$30Kpost-production & festivals
Back the finish

Grants · backers · press — info@generationorangefilm.com