DCEFF 2024 Virtual Encores

AWARD SHORTS: Wings of Dust + Eric Moe Award Finalists

Expired July 22, 2024 3:45 AM
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Featuring the Eric Moe Award for Best Short on Sustainability winner Wings of Dust plus finalists: A Symphony of Tiny Lights and Broken Flight.


The Eric Moe Award was established for the 2014 Festival by Julia and Richard Moe in memory of their son Eric. The award honors his strong interest in film and his commitment to sustainability, recognizing a short film for its solutions to balancing the needs of humans and nature. 


Total program time: 80 minutes


Honorable Mention: Eric Moe Award for Best Short on Sustainability


A large contributor to the recent dramatic population loss of birds is window collisions. The people dedicated to saving injured birds provide us with hope for their future.


Migration season is when the Chicago Collision Bird Monitors are the busiest as mother nature literally slams into the indoors. The volunteers arrive downtown before sunrise to gather birds that have flown into skyscrapers in the hours before they head to work.The unfortunate salvages are brought to the historic Field Museum, which contains thousands of colorful taxidermied skins, cryogenically frozen muscle tissue samples, and meticulously labeled skeletal remains. The ornithologists sort and catalog specimens for vital and unprecedented research.


At the Willowbrook Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, the chirping, moving bags with their pecked holes all show signs of life. Veterinarians take us through tedious exams and capturing rogue birds. The final result of everyone’s hard work is a joyful send off.

  • Year
    2024
  • Runtime
    18 minutes
  • Country
    USA
  • Premiere
    World Premiere
  • Director
    Erika Valenciana & Mitchell Wenkus