The Films
Vatna Glacier
- Year 2019
- Country USA
- Runtime 3 min
- Director Mykhailo Bogdanov
Filmmaker in Attendance
The brutal reality of Vatna Glacier melting in Iceland.
Coreyon
- Year 2020
- Country United States
- Runtime 15 min
- Director Jason Whalen and Chris Zuker
Filmmaker in Attendance
The Coreyon Reef restoration is aimed at bringing open water spawning reef habitat back to Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay. Throughout history, land use, pollution, overfishing and invasive species have damaged native fish populations in the Great Lakes. But the Saginaw Bay is experiencing an era of restoration, with the Coreyon Reef restoration project being the latest effort toward building up resilient and self-sustaining native fish populations. Coreyon tells the story of this important restoration project for the Great Lakes fishery.
Oshkigin: Spirit of Fire
- Year 2021
- Runtime 16 min
- Director Tom Deschenes & Andrew Bydlon
Filmmaker in Attendance
Not all fire is bad. Increased droughts and longer fire seasons in recent decades have caused more frequent, dangerous, and intense fires across the country. But for thousands of years, Native people used fire to prevent these intense fires, while also using it to cultivate the land, build communities, and preserve natural forests. Current laws preventing controlled burns have changed both the environment of the Upper Midwest and the culture of Native Tribes. Like the fire that rejuvenates the forest, a small group is working to revive this valuable practice. Oshkigin - Spirit of Fire shows the ways that traditional fire uses can reconnect us with the land and preserve the natural world.
Traverse City's Not So Haunted Past - The Northern Michigan Asylum's creation and fall.
- Year 2021
- Country United States
- Runtime 9 min
- Director Kathryn Clark
First Time Filmmaker
A middle school student was assigned the task to create a documentary that shows how perception altered history. She went into the project simply thinking that a local mental hospital had a bad rap because of ghost stories, but she learned much more about the history of asylums in the United States.
UNDERSTORY
- Year 2021
- Country United States
- Runtime 39 min
- Director Colin Arisman
Staff Pick, Michigan Premiere
Three women set sail on a 350 mile expedition through Alaska’s massive Tongass National Forest, exploring how clearcut logging in this coastal rainforest could affect wildlife, local communities and our planet’s climate.
Production | Wild Confluence Media & Last Stands
Funding Partners | Peak Design, Patagonia, Sitka Salmon Shares, Audubon Alaska & The Wilderness
Director & Editor | Colin Arisman
Producer & Narration | Elsa Sebastian
Cinematography | Gleb Mikhalev & Colin Arisman
Story Advisors | Duct Tape Then Beer, Faith E. Briggs & Natalie Dawson
Original score | Aled Roberts
Additional music | Liz Cooper and The Stampede, Kēpa & Y La Bamba
Animation | Kalakala
Motion graphics | Luke Kantola
Title design | Lee House
Audio post production | Ridgeline Sound
Colorist | Arianna Shining Star
Featuring | Elsa Sebastian, Natalie Dawson, Mara Menahan & Marina Anderson