AWARD WINNERS

Best Feature Film Award

THE ILLUSION OF ABUNDANCE
60 minutes | Belgium
Directors: Erika Gonzalez Ramirez, Matthieu Lietaert

This riveting and often inspiring documentary explores the stories of Berta Cáceres, Carolina de Mouro and Máxima Acuña. These three dedicated human rights defenders from Latin America struggle and thrive on the frontlines to defend their communities from the extractivism of multinational corporations that systematically pillage lands and livelihoods. Focusing on these three powerful women, the film uncovers how some multinational corporations resort to legal and physical intimidation in order to continue their conquests. It also shows the public and private struggles of the women and how the flame of their resistance spreads to inspire multigenerational rebellion against the new multinational conquistadors.

Best Short Film Award

LUMA
30 minutes | United Kingdom
Directors: Eleanor Mortimer, Liridon Mustafaj

For countless generations, the Valbona River has carved its way through the Albanian Alps. At turns gentle, powerful, and somehow playful, the river moves through the valley, carrying songs, memories, and legends of old. But something is stirring which threatens to halt its flow, and the life that Valbona has given to the people fuels their will to protect her.

Presented by Multnomah County Clean Rivers Coalition

Visionary Film Award

SUZIE HICKS THE CLIMATE CHICK
30 minutes | USA
Director: Suzie Hicks

Suzie Hicks the Climate Chick is a fast-paced, emotionally expansive, educational program aimed at inspiring youth to lean into learning about climate change. Using comedy sketches, music, and puppets, the show integrates social emotional learning, climate science, and localized community solutions to inform and empower learners to feel their feelings and fight for change.

Official Selections

DEEP ASTRONOMY AND THE ROMANTIC SCIENCES
71 minutes | USA
Director: Cory McAbee

In a crowded nightclub, a young partygoer named Rudy tries to converse with a robot named Grace. Their conversation quickly becomes personal as Rudy discovers her primary function: to represent humanity based on a generalization created from all social media and wireless communications. To verify her calculations, Grace must participate in a conversation with an unsuspecting human–after which she will be shot into space as the immortal spokesperson of humanity. Rudy is put on trial for the superficiality of his times. To defend himself, he must first prove to himself that Grace’s calculations are wrong.

DREAM OF GLASS
21 minutes | Italy
Director: Andrea Bancone

Manuele, a blind person, goes on a journey to discover the beautiful island of Ventotene. There, he exchanges perspectives on belonging, senses, storytelling ,and ecology with a charming assortment of scientists, explorers, and children.

FINITE: THE CLIMATE OF CHANGE
99 minutes | United Kingdom
Director: Rich Felgate

In Germany, concerned citizens step forward to save an ancient forest from one of Europe’s biggest coal mines. They form an alliance with people in rural England who are forced into action to protect their community from a new opencast coal mine. Director Rich Felgate spent nearly two years living in protest camps with the communities featured in this emotional story about battles between frontline communities and corporations.

FOLLOW THE WATER
22 minutes | USA
Directors: Ivana Horvat, Emily Vidal, John Lugton

How do Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest view their connection to water? How did people become disconnected from the waters after settling here? How can we reconnect to the waters–and to each other? This film (shot primarily in Portland) is an exploration of our collective connection, disconnection and reconnection to the waters, told through a multicultural lens. It invites us to consider the ripple effect of being physically and spiritually disconnected from the waters, and what we can learn from Indigenous stewards of the land.

IMALIRIJIT
27 minutes | Canada
Directors: Vincent L'Hérault, Tim Anaviapik Soucie

In this inspiring story of a young Inuit researcher, Tim Anaviapik Soucie is a young father living in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. Like his grandfather before him, he wants to do his own research, studying water quality to benefit living and future generations. Tim and his team embark on an inspiring journey that will lead to cultural revitalization for their community as they face the modern realities of the Canadian Arctic.

LA ULTIMA MANZANA (THE LAST APPLE)

27 minutes | Chile
Director: Joaquín Ritter

In a dystopian world ravaged by drought, an eccentric dandy confronts his addiction to apples. In his despair, he abducts a farmer and threatens him to reveal the secrets of how to obtain the precious, disappearing fruit. The desperate farmer will have to find a way out of this unfortunate situation. This could change everything.

LIFE ETERNAL
5 minutes | USA
Director: Samuel Smith

When a tree falls, it does not die. A short, but expansive animated rhapsody in music, watercolor, and linocut print.

MAMODY, THE LAST BAOBAB DIGGER
50 minutes | France, Madagascar
DIrector: Cyrille Cornu

The Mahafaly plateau is an extremely arid land in southwestern Madagascar. Here, the rains fall only a few times a year. In these very difficult living conditions, the inhabitants of the small village of Ampotaka found a unique place to store water: inside of baobab trees. But as times and materials change, so do customs, and Mamody may very well become the last of the baobab diggers.

NAMASTE HIMALAYA
93 minutes | Germany
Directors: Anna Baranowski, Michael Moritz

Anna and Michael are traveling the world and falling in love when the Covid-19 pandemic shuts down much of the human-made world. In a Nepalese village, they are greeted cynically with "Namaste Corona," because locals suspect that the globetrotters carry the virus in their luggage. When Nepal suddenly announces a lockdown and seals off its cities, Anna and Michael flee into the mountains, where they find refuge and unexpected wonders in a self-sustaining ecological community.

PART OF THE PACK
88 minutes | Canada
Directors: Isabelle Groc, Mike McKinlay

Long feared and often demonized, the wolves that have survived in places like Vancouver Island now live in a habitat where humans are rapidly encroaching. At the same time, our fascination with the wolf—as the quintessential symbol of something wild and dangerous—has become stronger. Urban lifestyles have increasingly alienated many humans from nature, and some want to reestablish that connection. Encountering a wolf can satisfy a craving for the natural world. Some people have taken that a step further by bringing a wolf or a wolf-dog hybrid into their homes as a pet, shifting the boundary between wild and domesticated beings. This nuanced and often surprising feature length documentary explores ethical implications and behavioral questions surrounding humans who create intimacy with wolves.

Sponsored by Oregon Wild

RECLAIM YOUR WATER: NATASHA SMITH
5 minutes | USA
Director: Faith E. Briggs

Natasha didn’t grow up believing that “Black people don’t do that,” was going to be a limiting factor in her life. Not only does she ride dirt bikes, skate, and surf; she is passionate about sharing those skills with other people. Along with her friends at Ebony Beach Club, Natasha is reclaiming waves, introducing others to the ocean, and spreading a love of surfing through her community. Whether it's dipping toes into the water or getting on a board, Ebony Beach Club is creating an inclusive space on the beaches of Los Angeles, and making waves in their community.

THE SANCTUARY
6 minutes | Australia
Directors: Timothy Raymond Brown, Michael Bruce Portway

Recounting his love of the water, octogenarian Ray Lewis snorkels among the vibrant sea life of a marine sanctuary near the heart of Melbourne, Australia–a city of 5 million people. For Ray, this is not only a place of recreation, but one he has worked tirelessly to protect. From a young fighter pilot to a dedicated conservationist, Ray recounts his journey and the stunning transformation that has taken place in the marine sanctuary since it received official protection.

SENTINELS
17 minutes | USA
Directors: Derek Knowles, Lawrence Lerew

This immersive, observational film follows a small group of young environmental activists as they undertake a tree-sitting campaign to stop the Green Diamond Resource Company from clear-cutting a northern California forest. Directors in attendance for Q&A.

THE SPRAYER
9 minutes | Islamic Republic of Iran
Director: Farnoosh Abedi

This visionary animated short from Iran tells the story of a contaminated land occupied by the Sprayers army, where no one is permitted to grow any kind of plant, either in public or private. To do so is considered a seditious act punishable by death. But when a soldier finds a plant sprouting from the earth, his humanity sparks something extraordinary, something big, something revolutionary.

TOTAL DISASTER
11 minutes | USA
Directors: Keil Orion Troisi, Molly Gore

Armed with realistic bird puppets, trickster environmental activists pretend to be oil company Total—staging a satirical press conference to introduce "RéHabitat," a program to rescue animals from the East African Oil Pipeline by relocating them to “more sustainable” habitats. Then, with humor and mischief, they expose a deadly ecological disaster in a zany yet urgent effort to help #StopEACOP. Co-directed by longtime Yes Men member, Keli Orion Troisi

WAVES BENEATH THE WATER
52 minutes | Netherlands
Director: Arthur de Bruin

A captivating landscape of ditches, canals, ponds, pools, lakes, and rivers, the Netherlands is surrounded by water. The country’s mills, pumping stations, polders and dykes have been famous for centuries. As much as 16% of the country is fresh water, and a third of the land lies below sea level. But what do we actually know about the aquatic lives of the freshwater residents? Using the latest underwater filming techniques, this film reveals nature’s hidden secrets, introducing viewers to many surprising underwater inhabitants of this surprising and breathtakingly beautiful world.

WILD BEAUTY: MUSTANG SPIRIT OF THE WEST
99 minutes | USA
Director: Ashley Avis

This feature length documentary illuminates both the profound beauty, and desperate plight of wild horses in the Western United States. Filmmaker Ashley Avis and crew went on a multi-year expedition to uncover the truth in hopes to protect wild horses before they disappear forever.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

BEANS
92 minutes | Canada, USA
Director: Tracy Deer

During the Indigenous uprising known as The Oka Crisis, which tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990, Twelve-year-old Beans is torn between innocent childhood and delinquent adolescence. She is forced to grow up fast and become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be. Inspired by true events and featuring several cast members of the hit television show, Reservation Dogs, including Paulina Alexis and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai.

Featuring a community conversation with director Tracy Deer

CULTURED CELL CULTURE

For the finale of our 10th anniversary season, we presented the Portland area premiere of CULTURED CELL CULTURE, a live multi-media presentation in the form of a science lecture, which includes original music, artwork and animation created by filmmaker and world renowned speaker Cory McAbee (THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT, STINGRAY SAM). Topics include cell memory in cultured cell meats, monarch butterflies, agricultural reform, proactive approaches to further human evolution, Abraham Lincoln, cruelty-free cannibalism, space aliens, and people who are better than we are.