Smart Buoys: Preventing a Great Lakes Drinking Water Crisis

2024 • USA • 27 min • Christy Frank and Alex Goetz

Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Making Waves Recipient, Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick

With the goal of banding 100,000 birds, this film follows Tom and Paula Bartlett on their quest throughout northwest Ohio, and the impact they have not only on bird research, but those they meet along the way. 

2023 • USA • 29 min • Ben Crosbie, Tessa Moran

Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere

On 4,000 acres in Illinois, first worn out by farms, roads and parking lots, Americans try to rebuild – with fire, beast and seed – what is lost elsewhere. On this restored prairie habitat they seek and still find a connection to the land.

2023 • United States • 41 min • Rory K. McHarg & Bret Miller

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Michigan Premiere, First Time Filmmaker, Staff Pick

Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale is America’s No.1 IPA. The now infamous & iconic trout image is found in every convenience store nationwide. The legends behind this label and many others have been buried in folklore for nearly 40 years, but the vision created at Bell’s started a revolution in the craft brewing industry that changed what a beer label could be. This is the unconventional story of an artist whose love of fishing, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and beer found its way into every store in America. Dave Chapelle, during a comedy set in Kalamazoo said aloud, “Why the hell did you put a fish on the label?” However, eccentric artist Ladislav Hanka’s reasoning is simple yet personal. Just like the rest of his artwork.