Nettie Peña
Director/Producer: They’re Not Green
Ms. Peña comes to the making of this film with over twenty years as a filmmaker. Her talent has long been recognized as she has received several awards including the William Morris Scholarship for Outstanding Film Directing while a graduate student at UCLA. Her student films include Cum Joyn Us; Wonderful World of Wigs; and Collage 66. After obtaining her Masters of Fine Arts degree, she worked as an assistant film editor at NBC News and Paramount Studios.

Building on her successes, Ms. Peña formed her own company, Peña Productions, Inc. Her company provided a wide range of services, including production, filming and editing, for makers of commercials, feature film trailers and corporate promotions. Her list of clients includes the San Bernardino School District; the National Association of Women Business Owners; El Rey Sausage Co.; the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; Bob’s Big Boy; KT Kitchen;NSA and, Home Sweet Home.

Ms. Peña has filmed through out the USA, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Honduras. These experiences provided opportunities to meet people and produce films on many cultures from around the world.

The 1992 Los Angeles “uprising” proved to be a turning point in the life of Ms. Peña. Living at the time in Echo Park, she found herself in the middle of the conflict. At the risk of being arrested, she defied curfew restrictions and took to the streets with her camera. She entered a surreal world full of smoke and flames while eerily devoid of people. In a city wholly dependent on cars for mobility, nothing moved. Block after block remained devoid of human activity. Struck by the pathos of these empty scenes, she made a decision, to become an agent for change. Believing education to be the key to her objective, she became a highly effective, inner-city elementary math coach and teacher. Her success can be measured by the improved test scores of her students.

In 2007 Ms. Peña made another career move, she returned to her filmmaking roots working on documentaries that will serve to educate the general public. Having moved from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, within weeks of her arrival she was confronted with the realities of the expansion of industrial wind turbines. Nettie Peña embarked on Directing and Producing her new documentary, They’re Not Green.

They’re Not Green is a feature length documentary film that raises questions about the long term environmental impact of building wind turbines in the fragile deserts of California and Altamont Pass. Peña risks going against commonly held beliefs about the reliability, cost and hazards of wind power in the U.S. while she also examines who stands to benefit from their expansion and more importantly, who will pay the price. Her findings will surprise and should be voiced as this nation looks for alternative ways to reduce our carbon footprint.