The Wild & Scenic Film Festival inspires environmental activism and a love for nature–through film. Wild & Scenic shares an urgent call to action, encouraging festival-goers to learn more about what they can do to save our threatened planet.
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Friday, November 20, 2020
7:00 p.m.
Join us for two hours of virtual film screenings of short environmental documentary films.
Free and open to the public.
We will be screening the following films:
Land Without Evil
Throughout history, people have always been searching for a perfect place. This short film, based on Guaraní mythology (Tierra sin mal), offers another point of view on paradise: what if the real paradise is inside us and lies in the harmony and unity of everything alive?
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The Guardian Elephant Warriors
Reteti Elephant Sanctuary is the first community-owned and managed elephant sanctuary in Africa. This oasis where orphans grow up, learning to be wild so that one day they can rejoin their herds, is as much about the people as it is about elephants. It's a powerful story about the changing relationship between people and the animals they are protecting.
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Lowland Kids
The filming of 'Lowland Kids' began as an adventure. A trip down to Isle de Jean Charles to experience this magical place before it's gone. I had heard many stories about this sinking island and America's first climate refugees - many of which pitted the islanders against each other - those who want to stay vs. those who want to go. But when our small crew arrived on Isle de Jean Charles we discovered a different truth: no one here wants to leave. Every family on the island would spend the rest of their life here if they had the choice.
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Every Nine Minutes
Every nine minutes, the weight of a blue whale (300,000 pounds) in plastic makes its way into our ocean. To call attention to this, the Monterey Bay Aquarium built a life-sized replica of a blue whale made of single-use, locally sourced plastic trash. Certified by Guinness World Records, the whale is the largest sculpture of its kind ever built.
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Sonora Rising
Water and wheat — foundations of life for millennia across the American Southwest. The Colorado River water flows more than 300 miles across Arizona to quench the thirsts of four million people to sustain their food, economy, and livelihoods. We explore three Tucson visionaries who are creating and growing the circular economy of water in the arid Sonoran desert.
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If You Can Hear My Voice: The Fight to Ban Chlorpyifos
Claudia Angulo's son was born with developmental delays after she was exposed to chlorpyrifos during her pregnancy. Now, she's fighting for a ban on the pesticide. "If we want things to change, we have to work together," Angulo says. "Don't stay silent. Don't just sit around at home. Stand up and make your voices heard."
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In the Land of My Ancestors
Beloved Ohlone elder, Ann Marie Sayers, has devoted her life to preserve the stories and culture of her indigenous ancestors. 'In the Land of My Ancestors' shines a light on the perilous impact of colonization and settler colonialism on Ohlone people in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sayers created a refuge for many indigenous peoples in her ancestral land called the Indian Canyon to reclaim their culture, spirituality, and indigeneity. This film celebrates Sayers's resiliency and living legacy and is produced by South Asian photojournalist, Rucha Chitnis.
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From Darkness to Light
Life is challenging for women in Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania made up of numerous islands where half the population lives below the poverty line. Mothers and grandmothers in Zanzibar are becoming solar engineers thanks to training from Barefoot College - meaning they can bring electricity to their villages where previously they relied on paraffin.
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I Am Public Lands
Being a veteran who continues to battle with frequent PTSD is exhausting; so Soul River Inc. is bringing both diverse youth and veterans into the natural resource conversations centered around environmental challenges. Soul River youth of diverse backgrounds learn at an early age that they can form their own opinions about public land while escaping the city for a long weekend in the wild Ochoco mountains.
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From Camel to Cup
In 2017, Kenya declared their drought a national disaster and in early 2019 announced it had allocated 2 billion shillings, about $20 million, to respond. Extreme weather has pushed wandering nomads to bank on camels and their milk as a drought-safe investment with Kenya, now the world's second-largest producer of camel milk after neighboring Somalia. Camels are highly adapted to climate change, while their milk has been dubbed "white gold" by food experts who say it could help conquer malnutrition.
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Words Have Power
Ten-year-old Jaysa's dynamic speeches at rallies and city hall catalyze her community against the coal-fired power plant that causes her asthma - and they succeed in shutting it down. Evoking social justice and environmental racism, she wonders why so many of these kinds of plants are put in her neighborhood. The film's wonderful soundtrack is provided by her father, a reggae musician.
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