Date: Sunday, February 11, 2018
Location: The Blue Note, Columbia, MO
We had a fantastic afternoon with a huge crowd at this year's Wild & Scenic Film Fest. Despite an ice storm the previous night, we sold 500 tickets for the day, packed the Blue Note and raised $16,000 for Missouri River Relief. Thanks to everyone for your support!
A huge thanks to our volunteer Missouri River Relief Crew for planning and putting on the event, to our event coordinator Jennifer Davis, to our sponsors, bake sale donors and silent auction donors and to Carl Gerhardt, for your help bringing your film and helping with technical support. And of course to the Blue Note for a huge discount and the support of your fantastic staff.
This of course would not be a fundraiser without our long list of sponsors, silent auction donors and bakers who shared your time and talent with us. Thank you.
One of our region's finest singer-songwriters is also a crazy good guitarist and top-notch whistler. Noah Earle joined us for singing and picking before the films and at intermission. Thank you!
We are really excited to feature a film about a local environmental success story. Local filmmaker and biologist Carl Gerhardt has created a wonderful history about a persistent group of Missouri River lovers right here in Columbia and Lupus that had the creative insight and determination to turn a polluted resource no one wanted into a special habitat resource we don't have enough of.
It's the story of how Columbia's treated wastewater, instead of being piped into the Missouri River, became the source for the migratory bird wetlands at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area.
Here is a wonderful Columbia Missourian article about the documentary.
Doug Elley has created a lot of ripples in Missouri River culture. From working with a team of citizens to help push Columbia's wetland wastewater treatment system (highlighted in Carl Gerhardt's film) to creating the Lupus Chili Fest to promoting local music and culture at the Lupus General Store to his long list of great big-picture ideas, we are inspired by Doug's vision.
The University of Missouri Peace Studies program brought global journalist Dahr Jamail to share his thoughts on the state of environmental justice in this strange new world disorder we are living in.
A glimpse at some of the Standing Rock Reservation leaders that galvanized the world against the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has now been built under the Missouri River just upstream of the reservation. Watch the film here.
Before President Trump even proposed his total border wall, the U.S. was building massive stretches of fence along our border with Mexico. This film follows a photographer and biologist documenting the destructive effects of manmade barriers on ecosystems and wildlife. Watch the film here.
Destiny Watford organized her community to prevent the construction of the nation’s largest incinerator in a Baltimore neighborhood less than one mile from her high school–and won the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work in 2016. Watch the film here.
The Azulita project started with some local frustration over massive amounts of plastic washing up on a local beach and ended up transforming a small community. Watch the film here.
Steve Snell, Alexander Isgriggs, Kaleb Segelquist, Steven Vandegrift. In 2017, a Missouri River Relief Action Team grant supported a KC Art Institute project getting students on the Missouri River and along urban Brush Creek. They turned their experiences into film stories. We only have a few here - “A Creek in Contrast”, “Damn Geese” and “The Creek Adventure Mix”.
One of a series of Mo. Dept. of Conservation Films telling the stories of state record fish. This story takes place on the Missouri River just downstream of Kansas City. Watch the film here and check out ALL the fish stores here.
A local environmental success story. Read the story above.
As part of the 2017 tax bill, the U.S. Congress lifted a 40-year ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This film explores the sacred context of this land to the Gwich'in people and the caribou that calve there. Watch the film here.
Fourth-generation Georgia cattleman Will Harris transforms his family farm from a typical industrial agriculture meat producer into a sustainable and humane center of a small community's economy by focusing on restoring the soil. Watch the film here.
Two young climbers take inspiration from Britain's first female climbing guide, Gwen Moffat, exploring many of her favorite wild spaces in the British Isles and digging into the passions that drove her to live a life on the edge.
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is organized and produced by the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) in Nevada City, CA. Their flagship festival is held anually in Nevada City and Grass Valley, California and spans 5 days featuring over 100 films, workshops, visiting filmmaker and activist talks, family-friendly programs and art exibitions.
Missouri River Relief is a part of the Wild & Scenic's On Tour program along with 250 enviromental nonprofits, schools, museums and businesses across the country. We have the honor of choosing from a diverse lineup of outdoor adventure & environmental films from around the globe.
