Join us for this virtual film festival, offered in partnership with Coastal Mountains Land Trust. The Wild & Scenic Film Festival will leave you feeling inspired and motivated to go out and make a difference in your community and the world!
As a festival by activists and for activists, Wild & Scenic is organized and produced by SYRCL (the South Yuba River Citizens League). “Since 1983, we’ve been building a community to protect and restore the rivers of our home watershed, from source to sea. The Wild & Scenic Film Festival puts our local work – and yours too – into the broader environmental and social context, and serves to remind us that we’re participants in a global movement for a more wild and scenic world.”
In short films, witness how individuals and communities across the globe are taking action and becoming part of the solution on issues ranging from energy, food systems, biodiversity, climate change and the protection and restoration of wild lands and wild waters.
This year’s line-up:
24 Leeches: One part family adventure, one part environmental film, 24 Leeches is a tribute to a father’s best friend and adventure partner, his 10-year-old son. This film documents a family canoe adventure to the Slate Islands of Ontario, Canada and more importantly a way of life.
Chasing Ghosts: In their quest to identify the pollinator of the ghost orchid for the first time, a team of explorers, photographers, and filmmakers spent three summers standing waist-deep in alligator and snake-laden water, swatting air blackened by mosquitoes, and climbing to sometimes nausea-inducing heights. They came away with a startling new discovery – and an even deeper love for Florida’s wildest wetlands – revelations that may help to conserve both the endangered orchid and its shrinking home.
Feathers in Flight: Bird Genoscape: Biologist Mary Whitfield has spent two decades studying one of North America’s rarest birds: the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher. Not much is known about their migratory route, so Mary has joined a cutting-edge effort to gather data on birds’ genomes from individual feathers, connecting breeding and wintering populations of the same species and providing critical information to conservationists and managers. The Bird Genoscape project brings together researchers from all over the Americas in an effort to protect the birds that tie the Western Hemisphere together.
Here We Stand: For generations, conservation has been about keeping people from places. Now, Save the Redwoods League and Teresa Baker ask what it would look like for conservation to include all people, even those that normally are in the margins.
Dear Mother Nature: Wyn Wiley (he/him), aka Pattie Gonia (she/her), has made waves over the past year as an environmental advocate drag queen. We follow Wyn as he travels to Hawaii to see first-hand the impacts of careless consumption and plastics on Mother Nature. Wyn meets with scientists, non-profit leaders, volunteers, then rallies the Pattie community to lead a beach clean-up. Ultimately, Wyn partners with sustainable fashion designer, Angela Luna, to create three dresses that personify the plastics crisis.
Common Ground: Conservation isn’t always the common thread between the tribes, ranchers, and government. This film shows how water can bring opposing interests towards finding a Common Ground.
A Message from the Future of Paradise: In 2018, the historic Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, CA and killed 85 people. In its wake, the community gathered to talk about their values and enact them in the rebuilding. Their vision ensured housing and employment for the survivors, and an economy and community that are resilient in disaster and in harmony with nature. Comprising 12 original paintings documented with stop-motion, A Message From The Future of Paradise is set 50 years in the future and reflects on the rebuilding process in Paradise, in turn creating a model for other communities.
A Mother’s Love: In 2020, life came to a grinding halt. Hopefully, in the resultant silence we are able to hear that our planet’s whispers have become screams. A Mother’s Love, a spoken word piece by actor and activist Lena Georgas and brought to life with the help of director Greg Yaitanes and the musical creations of Bill Barclay, gives voice to those hopes.
Ticket holders have 5 days after the event to watch the films!
