10th Annual Earth Day (week) Screening

The Maine Outdoor Film Festival presents the 10th annual special conservation-themed program hosted by Maine Audubon during Earth Day week, on Friday, April 21. Join us for a curated selection of short independent films featuring the outdoors at Gilsland Farm in Falmouth.

Date: Friday April 21, 2023
Location: Gilsland Farm, Falmouth
Time: Doors open at 6 pm, films start at 7 pm
Notes: This will be a 21-plus show and admission includes two complimentary drink tickets (Baxter Beer and wine will be available) and snacks. We’ll be viewing the films outdoors. There will be heaters and a tent, but come prepared with hats, warm shoes, blankets, etc.
Tickets: Get your in-person tickets here

Apologies, due to filmmaker licensing arrangements, there will be no virtual option this year.

Watch Video Trailer:

Film program:

MORNING ZOOM – 5.2 minutes – by Jesse LaFountaine, Mercedes Mehling – from Maine – Short synopsis: It’s Monday morning. Tom is getting ready for his Zoom meeting at 8am. A text from a coworker buzzes on his phone – “Boss just called. The meeting got pushed back until 9.” Tom has an extra hour. And he knows exactly what to do with it.

THE LAST LAST HIKE – 19.9 minutes – by Céline François – from Washington – Short synopsis: 83-year-old Nimblewill Nomad is about to become the oldest person to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. But he didn’t start at Springer Mountain, Georgia – his trek began on Flagg Mountain in Alabama, the true southern terminus of the Appalachian Mountain Range. Throughout his odyssey, he’s meeting hikers along the way and sharing the magic of Flagg Mountain, where he has been the caretaker for the past three years. With more than two decades and 50,000 miles of hiking experience behind him, will this really be his last last hike?

GHOST PONDS – 12.1 minutes – by Amanda Sosnowski – from United Kingdom – Short synopsis: In the farmland of England’s East Anglia, a search and rescue mission is underway. A team is working to excavate land haunted by ghosts… but these are not ordinary ghosts… they are ghost ponds. Norfolk used to have more ponds than any other English county, but over the past 50 years the pressures of modern-day farming forced landowners to fill-in ponds, making room for new crops, while burying England’s wetlands at an exponential rate. Despite the odds, the result from digging up burial grounds of once-thriving ecosystems holds much promise… even leading to staggering finds. Will it be the smallest changes that can make the biggest difference?

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.

SAVING GLACIERS – 8.5 minutes – by Ciril Jazbec – from Slovenia – Short synopsis: A scientist and his team on a mission to save the inevitable melting of glaciers in the Alps. Determined that the melting and eventual disappearance of the glaciers in the Alps can be averted, dr. Felix Keller, a Swiss glaciologist, and his team set out to develop a complex snow cabling system, recycling glacial meltwater into snow. Unlike others, their solution can be scaled up enough to save an entire Morteratsch glacier. Enthusiasm, resilience, and love for the Alps reflect in these locals’ efforts to save the winter for future generations.

NORTHERN COMFORT – 5 minutes – by Will Ballou Caswell, Sam Ballou Caswell – from Maine – Short synopsis: Northern Comfort is the syrup – but more importantly, it is a slice of beautiful simplicity and connection to the Earth. It reminds us of the sweet gift of presence; of being in the moment; of slowing down and tending to a process of transformation and reciprocity that in our current world requires the utmost intention.

FIRE IN THE WILDERNESS – 11.6 minutes – by Mark Kreider – from Montana – Short synopsis: This film shows leading fire ecologists working to better understand wildfire in Western U.S. wilderness areas and highlights the importance of allowing fire to express itself as a fundamental natural process.

DON’T FEED THE COYOTES – 33.4 minutes – by Nick Stone Schearer – from California – Short synopsis: don’t feed the coyotes’ observes several years in the intertwined lives of San Francisco’s urban coyotes. The story centers around a three year-old coyote, fondly-named Scout, and her territorial challenger, the scientifically-dubbed 15F. Chronicling their lives through the two starkly different researchers observing them, it’s about humans, the natural world and the lines we’ve drawn between the two.