There’s a lot a person can do for the environment. Plant trees, pick up litter, carpool. Or sit on your ass at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival.
Every January, the festival takes over the small town of Nevada City, Calif. for three days, screening 130 films in seven venues. There are also workshops, receptions, galas, and other activities. The event is then condensed and taken to 90 cities around the country. Each venue gets to choose from a shortlist of 55 films from a multitude of categories — like wildlife, forestry, sustainable architecture, and more — and present up to a three-hour block to their local audience. Films range in length from two minutes to an hour and a half, allowing for a selection of about six to 12 films per city.
“We always encourage our groups to build a blend and balance of different films highlighting a few different issues, because it’s all connected,” says Susie Sutphin, Wild & Scenic’s tour manager. “What you put in the water or put in the air is maybe going to affect the water. What you put in the soil creates runoff. It’s all related.”
Wild & Scenic is the largest environmental film festival in the U.S., and it’s in its fourth season as a touring program. The Coastal Conservation League hosted the festival locally in 2008, and the South Carolina Green Fair brings it back to the city on April 20. The event is sponsored by the City Paper and Half-Moon Outfitters.
Five of the city’s environmental organizations (The Coastal Conservation League, Lowcountry Earth Force, South Eastern Wildlife Exposition, Lowcountry Local First, and the South Carolina Aquarium) helped select the films. The Green Fair picked two two-minute shorts by The Fun Theory. This project, started by Volkswagen, makes seemingly tedious activities (like climbing stairs) more entertaining in order to encourage people to better themselves and the environment. California’s Marine Life Protection Act, which creates a network of marine protected areas, is detailed in The Sheltered Sea, appropriately chosen by the S.C. Aquarium.
“One film is going to strike a chord in one person and another film in someone else. So hopefully, from one of those films, they’ll have that light-bulb moment, that revelation,” Sutphin says.
There will be an after-party sponsored by World Oriental Kitchen and Charleston Green Drinks.
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival screens at the Hippodrome Theater on April 20 at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit wildandscenicfilmfestival.org.
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