2024 • USA • 34 min • Scott Ballew

Adult Language, Staff Pick

In the late 60’s a group of poets, writers and musicians descended upon the southernmost point of the United States to pursue their love of literature and fishing. Initiated by Tom McGuane - the prodigal son of American Literature in the 1970’s - his friends Jim Harrison, Richard Brautigan, Russell Chatham and Jimmy Buffett soon joined him. This crew and that era were captured on film by Guy De La Valdene and Christian Odasso in an obscure documentary called “Tarpon” in 1974. They went on to create some of the best art, poetry, novels, and music of their generation - but there will never be anything like Key West in the early 70’s. If you were lucky to survive it.

2024 • United States • 11 min • Brody Kuhar

Michigan Premiere

In 2021, a tragic car accident left Veranique (or V, as she’s known at Rox) paralyzed from the waist down. After a long stint in the hospital and multiple surgeries, doctors told Varanique she would never walk again. While this news would reshape her life, it wouldn’t alter her vibrant spirit. Veranique knew the key to living a full life rested in her mindset. In 2022, V set out to find a job, landing at Memphis Rox, a climbing gym in South Memphis. Witnessing climbing for the first time, she thought the gym would keep her behind the front desk — that she couldn’t participate in the sport. Until she did. Surrounded by community, Veranique is now a regular climber with a philosophy on and off the wall that the sky’s the limit.

2024 • USA • 81 min • Ben Sturgulewski

Representative in Attendance, Michigan Premiere, Family Friendly, Has Subtitles, Staff Pick

In the remote mountain villages of Bamyan, Afghanistan, a newfound passion for skiing attracts young athletes from rival ethnic groups to the slopes. With minimal gear and makeshift wooden skis, the determined ski coach Alishah Farhang organizes a thrilling ski race that fosters camaraderie, joy, and triumph. However, after the shocking collapse of their country, many of the skiers are displaced across the globe as refugees, and must call upon the lessons learned in the mountains of their homeland to find a way to rebuild.

2024 • USA • 27 min • Isaac Seigel-Boettner

Has Subtitles, Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick

This is a story about the power of feeling wind in your hair, no matter where you are on life’s journey. John is a retired school teacher who uses his pedal-powered rickshaw to give adventures to people who have lost the ability to get outside themselves. Through the intimate moments of these rides, _Cycling Without Age _explores the importance of the outdoors for those who are all too often trapped inside.

2023 • USA • 6 min • Daniel Flahiff

Filmmaker in Attendance, Michigan Premiere

In his junior year of high school, Travis Sterner attempted to end his life. DAD BOD is the story of that day and Travis’s lifelong mission to break the cycle of depression and despair through fitness, empathy, and encouragement. 

2024 • USA • 6 min • Mike Schwartz

Family Friendly, First Time Filmmaker, Staff Pick

“Elladj" follows the remarkable journey of Elladj Balde, a Canadian figure skater whom found his voice and fan base through wild ice skating. The film centers on the transformative power of embracing one’s passion over measurable results.

2023 • USA • 15 min • Matt Coddaire

Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere

From the Heartland is a candid depiction of American Agriculture and the rural towns reliant on its success. But when an industry’s ability to thrive is dependent on progress, how does a family farm discard their traditional practices to try something new and save the land?

2024 • Canada • 18 min • Émile Dontigny

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

For the Frigon, hunting is a family tradition that forges and strengthens the bonds between the generations. For several autumns already, Louis-Henri has been tracking moose with his grandson, Sasha. However, at the dawn of his 81st birthday, old age reminds him that his career as a hunter is now behind him. For the first time this year, Louis-Henri will not go for the hunt and Sasha will leave without him. Goodbye, Hunter offers an intimate look at the transmission of a long family tradition.

2024 • USA • 4 min • Eden Sabalboro

Family Friendly

Step into the US’s largest urban sugarbush in Detroit’s sprawling Rouge Park with the Detroit Sugarbush Project.

2024 • USA • 4 min • Jason Lindsey and Scott Krahn

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere, Staff Pick

“It’s Time” is a poetic 3-minute film set in early spring Illinois. Through stunning visuals and lyrical narration, it gives voice to nature. The tree’s awakening becomes a metaphor for environmental awareness. This cinematic ode aspires to plant seeds of change, encouraging viewers to listen to nature’s whispered warnings and become stewards of our shared environment.

2023 • USA • 14 min • Sergio M. Rapu

Michigan Premiere, Subject in Attendance, Staff Pick

Ojibwe artist Jonathan Thunder explores the mythic inspirations of his surrealist work.

2024 • USA • 16 min • Aaron Peterson

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Adult Language

Kiko is the Keweenaw’s favorite Brazilian Yooper. He rides bikes, plays accordion, makes a little trouble and tells truths we all probably need to hear. A collaboration of Aaron Peterson Studios and Points North Podcast.

2024 • Canada • 11 min • Graeme Meiklejohn

Michigan Premiere

Dan Craven, or Dan from Nam, as he was known during his professional road racing career, had for years dreamt of starting his own handmade bike brand at home in Namibia. He had travelled the world for riding and racing bikes, but he knew that to find the best builders, returning home to Namibia would make the most sense. When it comes to using their hands, Namibian skill sets are highly developed so that, whether it’s in the arts like sculpture or pottery or in the trades like mechanics and builders, their dexterity, precision and attention to detail are invaluable.

2024 • United States • 15 min • Brody Kuhar and Joshua Cannon

Family Friendly

In South Memphis, married artists Bertram Williams and Talibah Safiya transform their creative practices into vehicles for a higher purpose. Enter Mama’s Sundry, a collaborative movement fostering wellness and sustainability through education, service initiatives and a neighborhood garden that produces fresh fruit and vegetables within a community that’s long been designated a food desert.

2022 • USA • 12 min • Steve Brimm

Filmmaker in Attendance, Family Friendly, Subject in Attendance

Interviews with tribal knowledge holders about Manoomin (wild rice) during a 6 day workshop/ gathering in Baraga, Michigan

2024 • USA • 52 min • Ryan Busch

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

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the birthplace of organized skiing in America.It is also home to the National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and one of the oldest ski clubs in the country. This documentary film explores the skiing culture that continues to shape the lives of those who consider themselves Yoopers. 

2024 • Canada • 15 min • Graeme Meiklejohn

Michigan Premiere

“The Seventh Generation Principle is an indigenous concept originating from the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois Confederacy), in which you think about the next seven generations coming after you in your words, work, and actions; and to remember the seven generations who came before you.

2024 • USA • 10 min • Finn Ryan

Filmmaker in Attendance, Michigan Premiere

There’s always been only a few special places in the world where wild rice (known as manoomin to the Ojibwe people), grows. Which made it troubling when manoomin stopped growing in the early 2000’s at Spur Lake, a 113 acre lake in Oneida County, Wisconsin. A group of conservation partners who have come together to bring wild rice back to Spur Lake because of its environmental and cultural importance.

2024 • USA • 15 min • Finn Ryan

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Family Friendly, World Premiere

The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians is the largest indigenous tribe east of the Mississippi and has been stewarding the fisheries of their Great Lakes territory for generations. This project explores the importance of the fishery to the tribe and how they’re working to ensure a healthy fishery for the next seven generations.

2024 • USA • 2 min • Charlie Baker

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

Original Bluegrass music plus mountain biking with a twist. All self filmed clips plus editing lead to an illusion of the biker being filmed by himself.

2024 • USA • 7 min • Justin Deegan

Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere

An artistic celebration of the environmental activism of Darline Deegan and her efforts to protect the land of her Indigenous community.

2024 • USA • 4 min • Matthew Hill and Elliot Kennedy

Family Friendly, Subject in Attendance, Filmmaker in Attendance

This film tells Emily Lanctot’s story and personal relationship with art and how the beauty of the lakeshore intertwines with her world in art. Emily wears many hats, she’s a working artist, organizer of a local art group, professor in NMU’s art and design program, and the Curator and Director of the Art Museum on campus.

2024 • USA • 16 min • Nate Mitka

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

The Bike Listening Tour follows Andrew Mohama on his solo cycling tour across America as he investigates loneliness. Inspired by his passion for community, Mohama sets out to learn more about the Loneliness Epidemic in America, biking along less-traveled rural roads and, at one point, biking across “America’s Loneliest Highway.”

2024 • USA • 10 min • Matthew Boyd

Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick

Between the Ohio and Mississippi riverbanks sit the United States’ 15th International Wetland of Importance. Yet, the wetlands today are mere remnants of their original borders. Max Hutchison is a naturalist, ecologist, zoologist, and lifelong voice for preserving the wetlands he also calls home. The Careist is an ode to Max, a way of life, and a natural area long overlooked and daring to disappear forever.

2023 • USA • 91 min • Thomas Lindsey Haskin

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Staff Pick

THE FISH THIEF: A Great Lakes Mystery, formerly known as RELENTLESS, is a captivating mystery that engages the audience in a battle for the survival of the largest freshwater ecosystem on Earth, the Great Lakes. This fascinating true story, narrated by Oscar-winning actor J.K. Simmons, follows remarkable people tackling the mystery of why the most prized fish nearly vanished. The crash destroyed jobs and businesses, and devastated towns, tribal communities, and First Nations across the region.

2024 • USA • 5 min • Lynn Melling & Ian Planchon

Family Friendly

Meet The Moosers. Filmed at the 55th Annual North American Moose Conference, held in Grand Portage, Minnesota in May 2023.

2024 • USA • 17 min • Eric Machiela

Filmmaker in Attendance, Subject in Attendance, Michigan Premiere, World Premiere

Ghosts towns in the Upper Peninsula aren’t abandoned communities. Some of them are still very much alive. Told from the perspective of the Nahma Inn employees, they recount the spooky and unexplainable happenings that occur on a regular basis.

2022 • USA • 8 min • Steve Brimm

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

Spearfishing workshops for all ages facilitated by the Keweenaw Bay Indian community Natural Resource Department.

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.

2023 • France • 36 min • Morgan LE FAUCHEUR

Has Subtitles, Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere

Six monumental statues are immersed between the Lérins Islands under the gaze of their creator, the sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor. Molded from the faces of six inhabitants of Cannes, these stone giants were made from an ecological marine material. If today, these statues constitute the first underwater eco-museum inFrance and the Mediterranean created by the artist, tomorrow they will serve as a habitat and refuge for local marine biodiversity.

2024 • USA • 12 min • Palmer Morse, Matt Mikkelsen

Filmmaker in Attendance, Michigan Premiere, Family Friendly

An Unangax scientist, delves into her vital research concerning toxic algal blooms affecting filter feeding shellfish—a staple Indigenous food for her people, illuminates the profound connection between the Unangax people and their environment, showcasing the resilience and resourcefulness of a culture in the face of unprecedented challenges.

2024 • CANADA • 92 min • Katie Burrell

Adult Language, Filmmaker in Attendance, Staff Pick

After getting evicted, three party-loving best friends set out to win a ski-movie competition. The prize money covers their rent, but they’ll have to beat out professional skiers and filmmakers. An uproarious comedy that celebrates mountain towns and takes on the male-dominated ski industry.

2024 • USA • 20 min • Nkaujoua Xiong

Filmmaker in Attendance, Has Subtitles, Subject in Attendance, Staff Pick

At the age of 13, my father left his homeland, Laos, to seek a brighter future in the United States. Throughout the years, he devoted himself to supporting his family, seldom sharing the details of his past. This film intimately explores the experiences that shaped my father’s understanding of love.