2024 • USA • 17 min • Chris Cresci

Subject in Attendance, Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick

Set against the backdrop of Desolation Canyon, UT, Mikah Meyer, a world-record traveler and LGBTQ+ advocate, reflects with three close friends and his mentor, Larry Edwards, on their stories and the power of mentorship within the queer community. As a child, Mikah believed he could never have a successful life AND be publicly out and gay. When he moved to college and met Larry, his openly gay choir professor, a lifelong mentorship was born. Amidst conversations and joy along the river, we understand the power and importance of their friendship. As Larry enters what he calls the ‘final chapter’ of his life, he reflects on the lifelong fight for openness and vulnerability within the queer community, and through the desolation of nature, finds contentment in a job well done.

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 • Canada • 38 min • Matt Clark/Stirl and Rae Media Haus, Patrick Lucas, Thomas Schoen

Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick

The Story of the Indigenous Youth Mountain Bike Program is an inspiring and thought-provoking documentary that delves into the powerful connection between mountain biking, reconciliation, and healing intergenerational trauma. Through captivating storytelling and breathtaking visuals, the film follows the journey of three individuals: Patrick, Thomas, and Tom, as they collaborate with Indigenous communities across British Columbia to build trails and empower Indigenous youth.

2024 • USA • 17 min • Palmer Morse

Michigan Premiere, Filmmaker in Attendance

While navigating a myriad of life challenges, Anjelica Avella turned to the outdoors to improve her mental health only to discover a noticeable lack of other plus-size women of color on trail. By posting a simple flyer looking for more women to hike with, Anjelica created a community she never could have imagined.

2022 • United States • 13 min • Allison Doxey

Family Friendly, First Time Filmmaker

The story of Know Obstacles, a band made up of disabled kids in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and their founder, Steve Osburn.

2023 • USA • 10 min • Mark Stewart Iverson

Family Friendly, Representative in Attendance, Michigan Premiere

The Kenai River Sportfishing Association (KRSA) was founded 30 years ago by Bob Penney with a strong and clear mission: sustain the local King salmon population in order to preserve the Kenai’s status as the greatest sportfishing river in the world. Over the years the organization has grown, developing numerous conservation and sustainability projects to support the health of this one-of-a-kind waterway – several of which are explored in the film.

2024 • USA • 31 min • Dominic & Nadia Gill

Family Friendly, Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick

In 1971 John Francis, known the world over as ‘Planetwalker,’ witnessed an oil tanker collision in the San Francisco Bay. The sight of oiled birds on the shoreline caused him to give up motorized transport and rely solely on his own two feet. Months after that he took a vow of silence convinced that listening rather than adding fuel to any fire was the way ahead.
 
He didn’t talk, but he kept on walking clear across the country and back again. During the next seventeen silent years he listened and studied the world around him.

2023 • USA • 32 min • John Curtis

Filmmaker in Attendance, Representative in Attendance

Six elementary school girls fly to an island in the middle of Lake Michigan to test their fly fishing skill. The girls are members of a school sponsored Adventure Club that focuses on building community, belonging, and leadership skills to change the narrative of what girls can and can not do. During the two day trip the girls discuss the pressures of growing up in a digital world and the need for nature based connections like fly fishing.

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 • 12 min • Zeppelin Zeerip

Michigan Premiere

A Ukrainian snowboarder turned soldier grapples with the trauma of war and the uncertainty of being called back, seeking solace in nature as he tries to reintegrate into society.

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.

2024 • USA • 29 min • David Byars

Adult Language, Michigan Premiere, Staff Pick

The Shit-thropocene (a play on the word, Anthropocene) is a mock-anthropological investigation into consumerism. Join us on a journey that spans billions of years to piece together how and why it seems that everything has gone to shit.

2023 • Canada • 22 min • Nadia Louis-Desmarchais

Michigan Premiere, Family Friendly, Has Subtitles

Currently, post pandemic, one in two young people show symptoms of anxiety and depression. The World is ours  is a film that gives the opportunity to six Montreal teenage girls to leave their urban environment for the first time to take part in a nature canoe-camping expedition.

2023 • USA • 16 min • Jason Whalen

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

On a mission to clean up Ohio’s leaking, abandoned coal mines, Ohio University Art Professor John Sabraw teams up with an environmental engineer to develop a process that turns the toxic runoff pollution into paint. John’s artwork has been shown all over the world and proceeds have helped numerous environmental organizations and projects, including a new water treatment plant on the Sunday Creek Watershed in southeastern Ohio.

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.

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.