River Relief

January 3, 2018

Wild & Scenic Film Festival 2018

We had a fantastic afternoon with a huge crowd at this year's Wild & Scenic Film Fest. Despite an ice storm the previous night, we sold 500 tickets for the day, packed the Blue Note and raised $16,000 for Missouri River Relief. Thanks to everyone for your support!

A huge thanks to our volunteer Missouri River Relief Crew for planning and putting on the event, to our event coordinator Jennifer Davis, to our sponsors, bake sale donors and silent auction donors and to Carl Gerhardt, for your help bringing your film and helping with technical support. And of course to the Blue Note for a huge discount and the support of your fantastic staff.

Sunday, Feb. 11

The Blue Note
17 N 9th St - Columbia, MO

About the Film Festival

The Wild & Scenic traveling film festival has over 100 venues across the country showing environmental and adventure films that illustrate the Earth's beauty, the challenges facing our planet, and the work communities are doing to protect the environment.

The home festival is hosted every year by the South Yuba River Citizens League in Nevada City, CA. We select films from those shown at the home fest to show to you here in Columbia, MO. Our event here is a fundraiser and friendraiser for Missouri River Relief.

We hope these films inspire you to take action for the health and beauty of our community!

Music by Noah Earle

One of our region's finest singer-songwriters is also a crazy good guitarist and top notch whistler. Noah Earle joined us for singing and picking before the films and at intermission. 

Special Local Feature

"Eagle Bluffs: Battle for a Wetlands Treatment System" - by Carl Gerhardt

We are really excited to feature a film about a local environmental success story.  Local filmmaker and biologist Carl Gerhardt has created a wonderful history about a persistent group of Missouri River lovers right here in Columbia and Lupus that had the creative insight and determination to turn a polluted resource no one wanted into a special habitat resource we don't have enough of.

It's the story of how Columbia's treated wastewater, instead of being piped into the Missouri River, became the source for the migratory bird wetlands at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area.

Click here for a wonderful Columbia Missourian article about the documentary. 

Missouri River Hero Award to Doug Elley

Doug Elley has created a lot of ripples in Missouri River culture. From working with a team of citizens to help push Columbia's wetland wastewater treatment system (highlighted in Carl Gerhardt's film) to creating the Lupus Chili Fest to promoting local music and culture at the Lupus General Store to his long list of great big-picture ideas, we are inspired by Doug's vision.

Presentation by Dahr Jamail

The University of Missouri Peace Studies program brought global journalist Dahr Jamail to share his thoughts on the state of environmental justice in this strange new world disorder we are living in. 

Film Lineup

When available, we've linked to the films for your viewing.

"Mni Wiconi - The Stand At Standing Rock"

(9 min) Lucian Read; 2016. A glimpse at some of the Standing Rock Reservation leaders that galvanized the world against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has now been built under the Missouri River just upstream of the reservation. 

• Full Film on Youtube
  
  
  

"Think Like a Scientist: Boundaries"

(7 min) Neil Losin, Nathan Dappen, Day's Edge Productions; Before President Trump even proposed his total border wall, the U.S. was building massive stretches of fence along our border with Mexico. This film follows a photographer and biologist documenting the destructive effects of manmade barriers on ecosystems and wildlife. 

• Full film on Vimeo
  

"Destiny's Bay"

(5 min) Mill Valley Film Group; 2016. Destiny Watford organized her community to prevent construction of the nation’s largest incinerator in a Baltimore neighborhood less than one mile from her high school–and won the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work in 2016.

• Full Film on Vimeo
  
  
  

"Plastico"

(9 min) James Q Martin; 2016. The Azulita project started with some local frustration over massive amounts of plastic washing up on a local beach, and ended up transforming a small community. 

• Full Film on Vimeo
  
  
  

Select shorts from the Brush Creek Film Festival

Steve Snell, Alexander Isgriggs, Kaleb Segelquist, Steven Vandegrift. In 2017, a Missouri River Relief Action Team grant supported a KC Art Institute project getting students on the Missouri River and along urban Brush Creek. They turned their experiences into film stories. We only have a few here - “A Creek in Contrast”, “Damn Geese” and “The Creek Adventure Mix”.

"Fish Stories: Flathead"

(3 min) Jim Karpowicz, Tom Newcomb; 2016. One of a series of Mo. Dept. of Conservation Films telling the stories of state record fish. This story takes place on the Missouri River just downstream of Kansas City. 

• Full Film on Youtube
• Watch ALL the Fish Stories
  

"Eagle Bluffs: Battle for a Wetlands Treatment System"

(23 min) Carl Gerhardt, NatureView Media ; 2017. A local environmental success story. See story above.

"The Refuge"

(16 min) Kahlil Hudson, Alex Jablonsky, Finback Productions; 2016. As part of the 2017 tax bill, the U.S. Congress lifted a 40-year ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This film explores the sacred context of this land to the Gwich'in people and the caribou that calve there. 

• Full Film on Vimeo
  
  
  

"One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts"

(15 min) Peter Byck; 2016. Fourth generation Georgia cattleman Will Harris transforms his family farm from a typical industrial agriculture meat producer into a sustainable and humane center of a small community's economy by focusing on restoring the soil. 

• Full Film on Vimeo
  
  
  

 "Operation Moffat"

 (20 min) Jen Randall, Claire Carter; 2015. Two young climbers take inspiration from Britain's first female climbing guide, Gwen Moffat, exploring many of her favorite wild spaces in the British Isles and digging into the passions that drove her to live a life on the edge.