Wild & Scenic Films Friday March 20: Water Tales

Good Neighbors Care (3 min)

For decades chemical company DuPont and its subsidiary Chemours poisoned North Carolina’s drinking water through illegally dumping forever chemicals into the Cape Fear River. On altered 16mm film, corporate promises of community care and pure water dissolve as rivers and bodies merge in a meditation on what it means to exist in an imperfect environment.

Kelp Currency (9 min)

Kelp forests are vital ocean ecosystems, but their ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide remains virtually unknown. Kelp Currency features groundbreaking research from the Seatrees Kelp Carbon Science Project and Scripps Institution of Oceanography to measure the carbon benefits of kelp forests. Their goal is to develop a way to track kelp carbon budgets, with the hopes of unlocking new finance tools that could provide the missing funding needed to restore kelp forests globally. With up to 90% of California’s kelp forests lost in some areas, the film reiterates that now is the time to invest in science that could help fund large-scale restoration efforts.

Mû (6 min)

As an essential divine water spring has dried up, a child accompanied by an otter-like creature sets out to find a cure for the life-threatening water shortage. MÛ is a 2D animated short film that poetically explores the theme of water scarcity and the importance of water as a life-giving force.

Native to the Klamath (13 min)

Native to the Klamath is a story told through the voices of the salmon people. The Klamath River is currently going through one of the largest transformations in history. Native to the Klamath intertwines environmental restoration, reconciliation ecology, social justice, and traditional ecological knowledge. Hear the story of this river renewal through the words of the Klamath River peoples who live by the sacred obligation of stewardship.

Thailand’s last sea nomads confront a changing world (6 min)

The Moken, a nomadic sea tribe living in the Andaman Sea off the coast of Thailand and Myanmar, face an uncertain future. Their traditional, aquatic lifestyle is untenable in the face of climate change, tourism, fishing restrictions and natural disasters. Forced to settle on land, some have turned to an unlikely income source: plastic washed ashore on the remote islands they now call home. The plastic has become more reliable than the fish they used to catch, but many see it as a means to pass their traditional knowledge down to the next generation.

The Golden Trout Project (12 min)

All trout are beautiful, but there is something remarkable about California Golden Trout and their narrow home streams high in the southern Sierra Nevada backcountry. Our new film is a celebration of these beloved fish and the incredible partnership of anglers, agencies, and conservationists working together to protect this iconic native trout species. Following years of rigorous planning and decades of work by dedicated volunteers, TU and our partners at the U.S. Forest Service, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and many others, are expanding the scale of our ambitious effort to restore struggling populations of Golden Trout across 75 stream miles and 7,000 acres of critical headwater habitat in the heart of their native range.

The Human Side of Plastic: Abby Barrows (18 min) 

On Deer Isle, Maine, home to one of the world’s most productive lobster ports, warming waters and invisible microplastic pollution threaten a centuries-old way of life. As veteran lobsterman Joel Billings and his daughter Hannah reckon with the possible end of their family’s tradition, neighbor and microplastics researcher Abby Barrows offers a vision for a more sustainable future through plastic-free aquaculture.

What the River Knows (34 min)

For years, a lost Eden beneath Lake Powell has been re-emerging, revealing past follies and a new way forward for the Colorado River. What The River Knows explores this unique inflection in a centuries-long history. As the West faces the urgent need to redesign water management, we are offered the chance to restore one of the planet’s most stunning landscapes..

Wild Hope: Reclaiming Bear River (17 min)

Over 150 years after suffering the worst massacre in U.S. history, the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation has purchased their ancestral homeland — called Wuda Ogwa, or Bear River — with a vision to return it back to nature.