Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere, Representative in Attendance
Kendsie and Matt have been living car-free forever, and now they’ve added two kids to the mix without losing any of their optimism. The filmmaker knew she had to capture the joy it’s brought her family and so many others along the way.
Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere
In 1994 Eric Anderson returned to his home town with a dream of building an outdoor themed business with his father. This video tells the story of how a family’s dream became a reality and how the owners gave it away to keep the Ironwood, Michigan property in its natural state for all to enjoy.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Has Subtitles, Family Friendly, Representative in Attendance
Patrick Concannon reflects on his ancestral land near North Lake Leelanau, where hunting, gathering and caring for the land connect family across generations. This film is part of the Leelanau Conservancy’s Indigenous Knowledges Project, dedicated to elevating Anishinaabe voices.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere
This short film explores the work of local Marquette artist, Niikah Hatfield, engaging with the philosophical questions of life and what it means to be alive through the process of ceramics, creativity, and living well.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere, Student Filmmaker
The filmmakers mother, Jennifer Johnson a fish biologist with the Michigan DNR, discusses her connection with ice fishing.
Has Subtitles, Family Friendly, Staff Pick
Best Day Ever follows the stories of two adaptive mountain bikers as they navigate the relentless challenges of their disabilities and embrace the tremendous support, friendship, and joy they find in their rural Vermont riding community.
Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere
“Big Jim” Whittaker was a legendary Pacific Northwest mountaineer who became the first American to summit Mount Everest on May 1, 1963. Featuring rarely seen 16mm footage from the 1963 American Everest Expedition, archival images from the Whittaker family collection, and interviews filmed in Jim’s late 80s, the film is both an intimate portrait of an extraordinary life and a celebration of the adventurous spirit that helped define a generation of American climbing.
Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, First Time Filmmaker
Two boys arrive at a remote summer camp in the Vermont woods. Free from screens and societal expectations, they learn to open up, support one another, and redefine what it means to be a boy.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Staff Pick
Trail towns often face similar dilemmas when access to the outdoors, affordable housing and job creation compete for the same finite resources. Choosing Trail explores these issues in Marquette County, Michigan through conversations with land managers, business owners and trail advocates working to preserve and grow their beloved–but changing–community.
Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere
Since 1972 the Little Traverse Conservancy has preserved over 82,000 acres in northern Michigan. Today every LTC sign is an invitation and a reminder that all conservany-owned lands are open to you to enjoy.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly
Scattered around the shores of the Great Lakes are unique ridge and swale ecosystems, created over thousands of years and home to many rare species. Researcher Steve Loheide wants to know what’s happening beneath these landscapes - how shifting Great Lakes water levels ripple underground, and what that could mean for this fragile ecosystem’s future.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere
Dragon Mom follows Laura, a mother learning to navigate the emotional, physical, and societal complexities of raising a child who lives with severe disability. Alongside her family, Laura must confront the realities of ableism, advocate for accessibility, and redefine what strength and connection look like.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly
The Midwest has a rich natural heritage of beautiful forests, sprawling prairies and clear and clean lakes and rivers. While the human footprint across America’s heartland clashes with nature, protection and restoration of our most sensitive habitats is how humans can find a way to help biodiversity persist within our working landscapes.
Family Friendly, First Time Filmmaker, Student Filmmaker
This short documentary builds on the Fish for the Future project put together by the Wisconsin Sierra Club to explore why the Great Lakes are critical and how to preserve them for future generations. The independent filmmaker was a seventh-grade student at the time.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere, Staff Pick
A short form film created around a poem titled Flag Song, written by the Indigenous Nations Poets Fellows and Faculty at their retreat at Amerind Museum and University of Arizona Poetry Center in the spring of 2026.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly
A group of high school students at a boarding school in Northern Michigan set out to make a film about regenerative farming, only to get tangled in the contradictions between what they learn and the system that feeds them.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Has Subtitles, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere
On the mend from a knee replacement, ultra marathoner Dane Rauschenberg attempts to break a record in the half marathon portage category – even though he’s never before lifted a canoe!
Michigan Premiere, Adult Language, Family Friendly
For over a decade, artist Pete Mauney has been ritualistically trekking into the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, all alone. The desolate darkness brings him into confrontation with everything he can’t control. But when the landscape slowly starts to shimmer and sparkle, the magic begins.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Work in Progress
Michipicoten Island in Lake Superior is the little known sibling to famous Isle Royale. Soak in the rugged wilderness. Explore seldom seen relics and natural wonders. Get to know your seasoned off-trail guides, Michael Neiger and Chris Ozminski. This is a special sneak preview of the nearly completed film.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere, First Time Filmmaker
At 86 years old, Michigan fly fishing legend Jac Ford still paddles rivers across Michigan and Montana, guiding clients and teaching fellow guides his craft. In Jac, the master angler reveals some of his secrets, and shares a lifetime of wisdom for living a long, happy life.
Family Friendly
Inspired by the seasons and elements of the Upper Peninsula, Joseph Graci carves fine art that is textural, unique, and sense-awakening. This short film follows him as he works on his art in his studio and spends time in the expansive outdoors that inspires it.
Staff Pick, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere
Listen is a sensory immersion that dissolves the boundaries between us and the more-than-human world. It follows Alaskan author Hank Lentfer as he records forgotten sounds of the natural world and cares for his mother with dementia.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Student Filmmaker
Normal is a short reflexive documentary about growing up with divorced parents and living between two homes. Using personal narration, archival footage, and interviews with my parents, the film reflects on how something that seems difficult or overwhelming to others became my everyday reality - and how hearing their perspectives changed the way I understand my own childhood.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Representative in Attendance, Student Filmmaker
_Organic Network _features interviews from urban farmers and experts in Flint, Michigan on the impact of the water crisis, COVID, benefits of local farming, and how the lives of the farmers have changed over the years.
Has Subtitles, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick
Plant Life captures Dr. Joanne Chory at a pivotal moment: as her Parkinson’s advances and carbon levels surge, she pursues her most audacious experiment yet. Having revolutionized plant biology once already, she and her team are re-engineering crops to draw down carbon dioxide at planetary scale — a scientific race against time that may determine both her legacy and our future.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere, Staff Pick
A five-minute tribute to the last 100 years of Flint, through the lyrics and performance of Mama Sol and the Flint Symphony.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly
Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin’s largest inland lake, used to teem with wild rice. What happened to the rice, and how do we help restore it? An intertribal, interdisciplinary team is blending traditional ecological knowledge and western science to answer these questions.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere
When previously used surgical robots and other medical equipment find new life in the Great Lakes region, a small Toledo company’s commitment to reuse and sustainability helps train the next generation of veterinary surgeons, while giving rescue dogs a second chance at adoption.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Staff Pick
The film explores the lake sturgeon’s traditional role in Anishinaabe culture as told through interviews with community members across Michigan and examines how traditional beliefs have guided and revolutionized lake sturgeon restoration efforts in the Great Lakes.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Student Filmmaker
After their life takes an unexpected turn, Megan and Mitchell start a business creating keepsakes for families’ most important moments.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Has Subtitles
Spearfishing brings Ojibwe families together, honors ancestors, and provides food for the community. Despite this, spearfishing is often misunderstood outside of Indigenous communities. Hear from the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin about what spearfishing means to them, and how they scientifically manage the fishery.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Michigan Premiere, Student Filmmaker, Family Friendly
A student documentary exploring what drives people to keep going, and the people who show up to support them, Still Running follows the Anderson Lake Backyard Ultra, a grueling endurance race in the heart of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Family Friendly, Filmmaker in Attendance
An eccentric coach uses his outsider status to develop a new play to implement in the annual Troy Athens powder puff football game.
Family Friendly
An intimate documentary exploring the world of Dan Yagmin as the creative force behind Decoy Holds. It’s a portrait of an artist shaping not just holds, but the way we experience climbing itself.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere
Drafted by the Detroit Tigers 50 years ago, Mike Wilson never made it to the Major Leagues. Instead, he devoted his life to coaching youth baseball in Detroit. Now overseeing historic Hamtramck Stadium, the former Negro League ballpark where he fell in love with the game, Mike’s story reveals how mentorship, community, and baseball can shape generations.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Representative in Attendance, Staff Pick
In Michigan’s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, teams from around the world compete in the MATE International ROV Competition. In this competition, the Thomson family from Alpena competes brother against sister against sister against father. Who will triumph in this test of engineering skills in the Great Lakes?
Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly
For four decades, volunteers with the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology have visited Wisconsin’s Baraboo Hills before dawn, gently netting and banding birds one by one. Year after year, the data adds up to something bigger - a long-term window into how bird populations are shifting across the country.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, First Time Filmmaker
Across the salt-sprayed shores of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, a gathering of Indigenous women comes together to rematriate wampum as a living system of justice, truth, and inherent relationship. Through practices of teaching, making, and collective remembrance, the film examines how patriarchal disruption, colonial extraction, and climate-driven coastal change threaten not only living shores but the relationships that sustain them.
Filmmaker in Attendance, Has Subtitles, Family Friendly, Representative in Attendance
For Tanya Raphael, maple season is a time for family, friends, and tradition. This film is part of the Leelanau Conservancy’s Indigenous Knowledges Project, dedicated to elevating Anishinaabe voices.