Film Program:
BLESSING OF THE CREATURES - 4.5 minutes - by Marty Pottenger, Vera Francis - from Maine - Short synopsis: We created this listening video - Blessing of the Creatures - as a call to action honoring all the creatures of the Earth, including us humans. The Passamaquoddy Drum Song was reunited with the Passamaquoddy people through recordings that were made in 1890 on wax cylinders. It is held in reverence as one of the most ancient songs and offered here as a blessing, prayer, song, and call to action sung in Passamaquoddy and English by Passamaquoddy Vera Francis.
THE PACE OF SNOW - 13.1 minutes - by Natalie Simmons & Emily Mosites - from Tennessee - Short synopsis: The wilderness has long been a place people go to find themselves. After a traumatic loss, one woman travels to interior Alaska to bike on snow with friends. They return with new insights about life and how challenges shape us.
MARDI & THE WHITES - 11.45 minutes - by Paula Champagne - from Massachusetts - Short synopsis: Mardi has a rich relationship with nature that has evolved and deepened throughout her life. In the last 20 years she’s dedicated much of her time to exploring the landscape in the White Mountains (unfortunately coined “The Whites” by New Englanders) on Abenaki land. In that time Mardi summited all forty-eight 4,000 footers multiple times, often as the only Black person on the mountain. She has experienced great joy from communing with this landscape, but the overwhelmingly white hiking community that is so seeped in white supremacy and colonialism complicates her experiences. Recently, she has focused on creating more opportunities for Black folks to join her in appreciating this magnificent wilderness. Enjoying this land with her community has been a liberating balm that has strengthened her sense of identity as an outdoorswoman.“Mardi & the whites” is a peek into Mardi’s relationship with the White Mountains, the great outdoors, and the community that surrounds them; Above all, it’s a celebration of Black liberation in the wild.
KEYSTONE: VOICES FOR THE LITTLE FISH - 11.2 minutes - by Jerry Monkman - from New Hampshire - Short synopsis: The people of Gardiner, Maine work to provide fish passage around three historic dams on Cobbossee Stream for the first time in 270 years. The goal: restore an ecosystem that can support millions of river herring and other wildlife.
INTERMISSION
KEEP IT A SECRET - 61.15 minutes - by Sean Duggan - from New York - Short synopsis: Keep It A Secret recounts the inspiring true story of the dawn of Irish surfing and how the sport’s brave pioneers found peace in the surf during the most violent years of The Troubles conflict. In 1972, every international sporting event in Ireland was canceled, except for one. Teams from around the world were terrified to travel to Ireland amid the height of The Troubles, the conflict between Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland that had plunged the island into chaos and violence. The only group of athletes bold enough to risk traveling in Ireland at this turbulent time were surfers.
Film Program:
BLESSING OF THE CREATURES - 4.5 minutes - by Marty Pottenger, Vera Francis - from Maine - Short synopsis: We created this listening video - Blessing of the Creatures - as a call to action honoring all the creatures of the Earth, including us humans. The Passamaquoddy Drum Song was reunited with the Passamaquoddy people through recordings that were made in 1890 on wax cylinders. It is held in reverence as one of the most ancient songs and offered here as a blessing, prayer, song, and call to action sung in Passamaquoddy and English by Passamaquoddy Vera Francis.
THE PACE OF SNOW - 13.1 minutes - by Natalie Simmons & Emily Mosites - from Tennessee - Short synopsis: The wilderness has long been a place people go to find themselves. After a traumatic loss, one woman travels to interior Alaska to bike on snow with friends. They return with new insights about life and how challenges shape us.
MARDI & THE WHITES - 11.45 minutes - by Paula Champagne - from Massachusetts - Short synopsis: Mardi has a rich relationship with nature that has evolved and deepened throughout her life. In the last 20 years she’s dedicated much of her time to exploring the landscape in the White Mountains (unfortunately coined “The Whites” by New Englanders) on Abenaki land. In that time Mardi summited all forty-eight 4,000 footers multiple times, often as the only Black person on the mountain. She has experienced great joy from communing with this landscape, but the overwhelmingly white hiking community that is so seeped in white supremacy and colonialism complicates her experiences. Recently, she has focused on creating more opportunities for Black folks to join her in appreciating this magnificent wilderness. Enjoying this land with her community has been a liberating balm that has strengthened her sense of identity as an outdoorswoman.“Mardi & the whites” is a peek into Mardi’s relationship with the White Mountains, the great outdoors, and the community that surrounds them; Above all, it’s a celebration of Black liberation in the wild.
KEYSTONE: VOICES FOR THE LITTLE FISH - 11.2 minutes - by Jerry Monkman - from New Hampshire - Short synopsis: The people of Gardiner, Maine work to provide fish passage around three historic dams on Cobbossee Stream for the first time in 270 years. The goal: restore an ecosystem that can support millions of river herring and other wildlife.
INTERMISSION
KEEP IT A SECRET - 61.15 minutes - by Sean Duggan - from New York - Short synopsis: Keep It A Secret recounts the inspiring true story of the dawn of Irish surfing and how the sport’s brave pioneers found peace in the surf during the most violent years of The Troubles conflict. In 1972, every international sporting event in Ireland was canceled, except for one. Teams from around the world were terrified to travel to Ireland amid the height of The Troubles, the conflict between Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland that had plunged the island into chaos and violence. The only group of athletes bold enough to risk traveling in Ireland at this turbulent time were surfers.