The American Conservation Film Festival is coming to Parker River Wildlife Center the weekend of March 6-8.
Beginning on that Friday evening, a spectacular array of world class, awarding winning films will be screened in the refuge’s visitor center auditorium…all weekend-long.
Best of all- everything is FREE!
To see the entire film festival schedule, click on the link below.
History
The American Conservation Film Festival was created by a group of volunteers who shared both appreciation of the film arts and a commitment to conservation. They believe that attitudes about the environment are shaped by our experiences in it. Also that people and their cultures are an essential part of Earth’s biosphere.
The venture started and has remained in Shepherdstown, West Virginia since the Festival’s founding in 2003. From the outset, ACFF struck a chord with local filmgoers and tourists from the Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland regions. ACFF has expanded its audience by keeping ticket prices low and presenting many of its films free of charge.
They now attract more than 150 quality submissions each year, reflecting the festival’s strong and growing reputation with professional filmmakers. Artists appreciate ACFF’s way of making the filmmakers and their work the focus of the Festival. A film festival truly becomes festive when the creators join viewers to share viewpoints. The founders strive to do everything they can to facilitate this exchange.
Submissions are being accepted for the 2015 Festival. The Festival runs October 22-25, 2015, in Shepherdstown, WV. Regular deadline is April 15th. Piping Plover Pilgrimage anyone?
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Highlight Films
Flight of the Butterflies. Following the year-long annual migration cycle of the butterflies, the award-winning production team filmed hundreds of millions of monarchs in their remote overwintering sanctuaries in Mexico in 2011 and again in 2012 and also along their migratory routes from Canada, across the U.S. and into Mexico. The monarch butterfly is a true marvel of nature. Weighing less than a penny, it makes one of the longest migrations on Earth across a continent to a place it has never known. Follow the monarchs’ perilous journey and experience millions of them in the remote mountain peaks of Mexico, with breathtaking cinematography from an award winning team including Oscar® winner Peter Parks. Be captivated by the true and compelling story of an intrepid scientist’s 40-year search to find their secret hideaway.
Magic of the Snowy Owl. A pair of snowy owls struggles to raise a family on the unforgiving Arctic. Filmmakers take us deep into the snowy owl’s tundra home on the North Slope of Alaska to observe the daily struggles involved in raising a family of owlets until they are ready and able to fly.
The Power of One Voice: A 50 Year Perspective on the Life of Rachel Carson The Mark Dixon Film will be introduced by Carson scholar Dr. Patricia DeMarco. Rachel Carson is widely regarded as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. She grew up in Springdale, Pennsylvania, where she witnessed first-hand the beauty and genius of nature juxtaposed with the ecological devastation caused by industrialization. Carson’s widely recognized talent as a writer, combined with her deep knowledge of the natural world, made her a potent advocate for the use of precaution when working with biological systems. In 1962 her best- selling book, Silent Spring, awoke the environmental consciousness of America with poignant words of caution in the face of rapidly advancing scientific progress. This film pulls insights from a variety of speakers at a 50-year anniversary celebration of Silent Spring held at Chatham University and The National Aviary on April 11-12, 2012.
Rachel Carson’s adopted son, Roger Christie, her biographer, Linda Lear, and other notable writers, scientists and advocates reflect on the impact and lessons learned from her life and work. Today, Rachel Carson stands as a role model and inspiration for people across the globe, even as the controversy created by her challenge to the chemical industry continues unabated. We hope that, by highlighting the power of Carson’s voice, we may inspire others to add their voices to this essential conversation. [Synopsis written by Mark Dixon and Patricia Demarco] *The film will be preceded by a brief slide presentation – A Rachel Carson/Parker River NWR Sense of Place – featuring images of the refuge, quotes by Ms. Carson, and set to music.