Rivertown Film and ROSA4Rockland, the grassroots environmental non-profit, once again teamed up to present this creative evening of award-winning shorts that combine poignant story-telling and gorgeous cinematography. As in 2020, this year’s festival will be online, but live and with local content, the same as every year. Our M.C. and guide through the program remains Rivertown Film and ROSA board member Suzanne Mitchell. Hopefully in 2022 the festival will return to Suffern’s Lafayette Theater, but even when streaming this is a lively and fun evening that opens eyes, hearts, and minds for all ages, just as it always does.
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival originates in Nevada City, California, as a five-day festival or more than 100 films, then goes on tour in shorter formats to over 180 communities throughout the United States and the world, including Rockland County, where a two-hour program of short films is curated specifically for our community.
Tickets are $25, available HERE.
Members of Rivertown Film can use the discount code RFM for a $10 discount. Become a member, or renew your membership, HERE.
Date and Time: Wednesday, April 21 at 7:00 PM
A recording of this year’s festival will be available to ticket buyers through April 28, and tickets will remain on sale during that time.
JOIN A DISCUSSION about the films, the ecological issues on our region, and the organizations that are fighting for our environment. A Zoom meeting, on Monday, April 26 at 7:00 PM. Register HERE. You will receive information after you register.
Help make the Wild & Scenic Film Festival a financial success by participating in our AUCTION, featuring items themed to the outdoors and a healthy environment, such as a bird feeder, a hammock, a cooler, water bottles, a bike helmet, and more. Check it out HERE.
Thank you to our sponsors
Weld Realty and Ramsey Outdoor
AND SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OF OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS FOR TELLING THEIR COMMUNITIES AND NETWORKS ABOUT THE WILD & SCENIC FILM FESTIVAL. PLEASE VISIT OUR COMMUNITY PARTNER PAGE FOR A FULL LIST OF ORGANIZATIONS.
THE FILMS
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.
Magali
Magali Salinas has dedicated 15 years of her life to rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing wild animals in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. In this film, as she prepares to release a group of Howler Monkeys, she talks about her life and the struggles she faces in her work.
Still River, Silent Jungle
In this environmental short film, indigenous activist Ruth Alipaz Cuqui guides us through her inner struggle of embracing the limelight in order to protect her river and people. There is still time to stop the Chepete-Bala mega dam proposals before they are built, and Ruth has no intention of giving up.
Water Flows Together
Through the voice of Colleen Cooley, one of the few female Diné (Navajo) river guides on the San Juan River, Water Flows Together elevates the importance of acknowledging Indigenous land in outdoor recreation. The film is a meditation on the challenges Colleen and her community have faced, the kinship she has with the San Juan River, and the unique opportunities her role as a river guide affords as she seeks to create positive change.
Stories from the Blue: Discovering Inner Earth
“For me and for my colleagues, we look into the darkness and we see opportunity.” Many think Jill Heinerth and fellow cave divers are nothing but adrenaline junkies. Come along as Jill takes us on a journey that dispels this myth, and find out how her exploration of inner Earth is furthering understanding of our planet.
TranSending
This film follows the journey of Erin Parisi as she comes into her own identity as a Transgender woman and trains for the Seven Summits to create awareness and visibility for the Trans community. TranSending showcases this journey of extensive vulnerability, heartbreak, and courage.
Dani Burt
For the first few days after she awoke from her coma, Dani Burt didn’t know her right leg, from just above the knee down, was gone. When the doctors finally told her the full extent of her injuries, Burt, an active, hungry-for-life person, wasn’t sure if she could go on. But she found the courage to continue through surfing, which led her on a path to becoming the first-ever women’s World Adaptive Surfing champion.
Becoming Ruby
This is a film about inclusion, identity, and hand-drawn heroes. Becoming Ruby shows that if you can’t find a hero, you can create your own. For mountain biker, skier, and artist Brooklyn Bell, that hand-drawn hero was a comic character named Ruby J. Using Ruby as a role model, Brooklyn set out to “live like her, breathe like her, be unapologetically black like her,” finding her own identity in a mix of dirt, snow, art, and inclusion.
Myrtle Simpson: A Life On Ice
Myrtle Simpson – trailblazer, skiing pioneer, adventurer, writer, mother, and polar explorer. In 2017, over fifty years after she was the first woman to cross the polar ice cap of Greenland, she was awarded the Polar Medal – a gift from Queen Elizabeth. Myrtle’s life has taken her around the globe from Spitzbergen to Greenland, from the Northpole to Surinam. She has undertaken journeys most people only dream about, all while writing 13 books, collecting plants for museum botanical collections, and raising four children. Today, at the age of 90, she continues to explore the world and she believes more adventures await.
Total run time: 1 hour, 46 minutes.
