Arts, Dining & Entertainment, Events & Activities

A celebration of our environment through film

Thursday, April 28 — VIRTUAL — Join Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC) to watch Wild and Scenic Film Festival On Tour from the comfort and safety of your home, live on April 28, at 6 p.m. Tickets are $12. Film program, and raffle items available at VNRC.org/WSFF2022.

Courtesy Wild & ScenicFilmFestival
The Magical Forest and the Things is a 4 minutes short about Dave and Callie (6 years old) who spent the first three weeks of Covid19 in a make-shift “Quarantine Attic.”

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival celebrates the beauty and wonder of our natural world, and inspires audiences everywhere to take action to protect it. A fundraiser for VNRC, proceeds from the festival go directly to fostering the advocacy, research, and education that are crucial to protecting our natural resources. VNRC is one of Vermont’s oldest statewide environmental organizations, working to protect Vermont’s environment and communities, and prepare the state for a climate-resilient future.

This is VNRC’s 14th year hosting the film festival, and the third year holding it virtually. While the in-person gatherings were wonderful opportunities to come together in the spirit of celebrating the natural world, the virtual event has allowed VNRC to expand access to the inspiring and educational films to people all over Vermont, and beyond.

The festival is part of a national network of grassroots organizations connected by a common goal of using film to inspire activism. This year’s festival will feature a cross-section of environmental efforts both across the world and close to home.

Film program:

  1. “Protecting the Monarch Butterfly (4 minutes). Land restoration near Niagara Falls is giving refuge to a beloved butterfly and setting an example for wildlife protection everywhere.
  2. Dear Pippa (8 minutes). A woman shares with her daughter what she has learned about herself through motherhood.
  3. Civil Society: Not on Our Soil (8 minutes). The community of the notoriously polluted South Durban fights for a democracy that is for the people – and by the people.
  4. Craig, America (14 minutes). A small town, like so many, grapples with evolving from a fossil fuel past to a more sustainable future.
  5. It’s Bean to Hot (25 minutes). Climate change is affecting coffee production worldwide. If we don’t act now, coffee could soon be gone forever.
  6. Intermission (10 minutes)
  7. The Magical Forest and the Things (4 minutes). Dave and Callie (6 years old) spent the first three weeks of Covid19 distancing in a makeshift shared studio now called the Quarantine Attic. It’s an original story depicting a critical yet child-like observation of human consumption habits and the social reinforcements that influence it.
  8. A Fly Fishing Refugee (6 minutes). A Polish dissident discovers the true reason rivers and salmon figure so prominently in his life.
  9. The Hunt for the Asian Giant Hornet (12 minutes). Scientists race to stop the spread of a new invasive species.
  10. Shaba (12 minutes). After losing her mother to poachers, an unruly elephant named Shaba is rescued to the mountains of northern Kenya to be rehabilitated back to the wild. The women keepers of Reteti Sanctuary have a maternal solution to soften Shaba’s heart.
  11. West Portal Creek (24 minutes). West Portal Creek shows how people worked together to build trust, form relationships, and work together over more than twenty years to reverse a stream’s water quality problems.
  12. I’m a Child (3 minutes). I’m a Child leads us on a whimsical journey to understanding the importance of coming to grips with the Climate Crisis.
  13. Interview with Els Van Woert from Dear Pippa (10 minutes). VNRC’s Communications Director, Makenna Goodman, interviews Els Van Woert, a local Vermonter and the writer and star of Dear Pippa. Els shares her story of finding solace in Vermont’s forests and the wonders of sharing the great outdoors with her daughter.

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