The Migration of the Blue Spotted Salamander

2024 • USA • 14 min • Ryan Rumpca

Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, First Time Filmmaker, Filmmaker in Attendance

A mother-daughter group learns valuable life and wilderness skills in one of the most pristine wilderness areas in the world, powered only by their own two feet and a team of four legged friends.  With multiple trips to the North Pole, South Pole, Greenland, and Svalbard on her resume, she is embarking on one of her greatest adventures yet: motherhood.

2024 • Canada • 90 min • Yvonne Drebert & Zach Melnick

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick

Cutting-edge underwater drones explore how quadrillions of tiny invasive quagga mussels are re-engineering the ecosystem of the Great Lakes at a scale not seen since the glaciers. Part scientific exploration, part natural history adventure – the film shines a spotlight on freshwater wildlife and environments like never before.

2023 • USA • 71 min • Davis Huber

Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, First Time Filmmaker, Representative in Attendance, Staff Pick

Troubled Water is an exhilarating adventure, conservation film that beckons viewers to follow along on a transformative journey down the stunning coast of Lake Michigan. As the journey unfolds, the film unveils the significance of the Line 5 pipeline issue, the dire need for collective action and the historic precedent that this movement would establish. If successfully shutdown, it would become the first active pipeline in US history to be terminated before it ruptures.