Wild & Scenic Film Festival

The Films

Our festival will include some of the very best and highly acclaimed films that are part of the Wild & Scenic film festival, including. Our film selections focus on themes related to POST and Midpen’s work on public access, sustainable agriculture, as well as protection of natural resources such as forests, wildlife, and water resources. Here is a list of the films we have chosen so far, more to come soon!

Umunhum

Mt Umunhum (pronounced um-un-um) is located in the 18,000 acre Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve managed by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. For thousands of years the Amah Mutsun people lived and prayed on this mountain. In the 1950s, the United States government built the Almaden Air Force Station on the top of Mt Umunhum, an early warning radar station that operated from 1957 to 1980. Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District purchased the site from the military in 1986. The District partnered closely with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band on the significant and necessary restoration of this mountain top. Mt Umunhum opened to the public on September 18, 2017.

Wildlife and the Wall

Filmmaker Ben Masters (Unbranded ) goes into the heart of the Big Bend, the last true wilderness in the state of Texas, to consider what effects building a border wall might have on wildlife dispersals, migratory corridors, and access to the Rio Grande, the only water source in a harsh desert environment.

Cowboys & Scientists

Thirty years ago, a partnership between Archbold Biological Station and Buck Island Ranch inspired a new mission: cowboys and scientists working together to advance scientific discovery on a ten thousand acre working cattle ranch in Florida’s Northern Everglades. Bridging this cultural divide has resulted in a series of transformative discoveries that have begun to reshape our misconceptions about agriculture, sustainability, and conservation in the 21st century.

March of the Newts

A Follow one of the forest’s funkiest creatures into a gangly gathering of amphibious affection… and learn how you can help protect these sensitive animals from an emerging disease.

Sky Migrations

Each fall, our skies fill with the wings of migrating raptors, a migration that relies on two hemispheres worth of wild and healthy ecosystems. Join ecologist and filmmaker, Charles Post, as he shines a light on the network of back country scientists and sentinels at the front lines of raptor conservation.

Blue Carbon

“Blue carbon” is carbon that’s captured and stored by coastal wetlands, helping to mitigate climate change. This film is about mud and the multiple benefits that estuaries provide for us. “You never go into a wetland and just restore one benefit,” says wetlands ecologist John Rybczyk. It improves water quality, provides salmon habitat, protects our shorelines, and also benefits our climate.

Clay Bolt

Clay Bolt is a natural history and conservation photographer for World Wildlife Fund and has been featured in prominent magazines such as National Geographic. Affectionately referred to as the bug guy, Clay explains how and why he focuses on 99% of life on earth that is smaller than your finger.

The Nature of Maps

Marty Schnure and Ross Donihue are modern day pioneers: roaming some of the world’s last remaining wild lands to create maps to help conserve these precious places. Through their project with conservationist Kris Tompkins and Conservacion Patagonica to map the new Patagonia Park in Chile, The Nature of Maps explores the integral role maps play in conservation, adventure and our understanding of wild places.

Imagination

We’ve all been that kid sitting in the back seat of our family car, wishing we were somewhere else. Through the boredom, the driveway snow piles, sidewalk handrails and stair sets start to tease our inner skier. Watch day dreams come to life as Tom Wallisch shreds the snowy streets of Nelson, British Columbia.

The Invisible Mammal – The Bat Rescuer

Beyond the impacts of climate change and habitat destruction, certain bat species in North America are also suffering population decline due to white nose syndrome. In this first installment of The Invisible Mammal series, we meet The Bat Rescuer, Corky Quirk. Corky has been working intensely with native California bats since 2005 and has educated thousands of people.

Our National Parks belong to everyone. So why are they so white?

Only 20 percent of visitors to National Parks are people of color. As the broader conservation movement continues to struggle with diversity and inclusion, many worry that the Trump administration will only make things worse. Watch our video to learn about the troubling history of public lands and to meet the conservationists of color who are trying to change the parks’ future.

Dragging 235 lbs uphill both ways

The next generation is becoming increasingly plugged in to electronics and out of touch with the outdoors. This will have enormous effects on future conservationism. A mother of four kids decides to turn off the screens and make a change. Though challenging, her kids go from fearing and ignoring nature to understanding and loving it.

A New View of the Moon

Become reacquainted with awe alongside strangers interacting with a telescope trained on the moon. Watch as Wylie Overstreet takes a telescope around the streets of Los Angeles to give passersby an up-close look at a familiar object: a new view of the moon.