The Last Green Thread

2019 • USA • 10 min • Aaron Peterson

Family Friendly

This is a family camping story told by my son Josiah. The film takes place during a 10-day canoeing and camping trip to the Slate Islands of Ontario, Canada on Lake Superior. It was scripted from campfire conversations about life, climate change and the natural world that we shared during this and other trips. The film was originally produced in 2018 but not released because I didn’t think it was finished, but in August 2019 Josiah passed away due to a fungal brain infection contracted during treatment for leukemia. He was 10 years old. Now the film has become a memorial to my best friend and adventure buddy, a very special kid that experienced more in his decade than many do in a full life. I ache to know what he would have become, but find joy in all that he was.

2018 • USA • 4 min • Pablo Durana

Family Friendly

Ricky Jones converted his van into his home, spends his nights in nature, and during the day makes a living making a difference — collecting data from the backcountry to help scientists, and helping others to do so as well. “Why wouldn’t you want to do your part to give back to the community?” he asks. “And that community being the entire world.”

2018 • USA • 6 min • Benjamin Drummond & Sara Joy Steele

Blue carbon is carbon that is captured and stored by coastal wetlands, helping to mitigate climate change. This film is about mud and the multiple benefits that estuaries provide for us. “You never go into a wetland and just restore one benefit,” says wetlands ecologist John Rybczyk. It improves water quality, provides salmon habitat, protects our shorelines, and also benefits our climate. Restore America’s Estuaries recently lead a first-of-its-kind study in the Snohomish estuary to quantify the climate benefits of estuary restoration. Set in the Snohomish, this film helps to build awareness of blue carbon as a climate mitigation tool and to encourage more investment in wetland restoration at local, state, and federal levels.