2019 ENVIRONMENTAL YOUTH FORUM PROGRAM AND SCHEDULE
All programs take place at the Smith Rafael Film Center at 1118 Fourth Street in downtown San Rafael.
Click image to view trailer
MINISCULE: MANDIBLES FROM FAR AWAY
Wednesday, May 1 | 9:45 – 11:45 am
Grades 1-5
When a young ladybug gets trapped in a box shipped thousands of miles away from its mountain home in France to a remote Caribbean island, its parent sets off on an urgent overseas rescue mission. With beachfront developers on the island threatening to demolish the local insects’ native habitats, bugs from both sides of the world unite to try to save them. This fun and innovative live-action/animation hybrid told entirely without dialogue offers a buzzy bug’s-eyed view of the ecological importance of our tiniest creatures. Directors Thomas Szabo & Hélène Giraud | France 2018, 90 min
GUEST SPEAKER: Guest Speaker: Stephanie Dole, Ph.D., The Beetle Lady
KIFARU
Wednesday, May 1 | 10:45 – 12:30 pm
Grades 7-12
Kifaru follows the lives of two young Kenyan recruits who join the Ol Pejeta Conservancy’s rhinoceros caretaker unit—a small group of rangers who protect and care for Sudan, the last male northern white rhino in the world. Over the course of their first four years on the job, we experience the joys and pitfalls of wildlife conservation firsthand. Director David Hambridge | US 2018, 78 min | In English and Swahili with English subtitles
GUEST SPEAKERS: Director David Hambridge; Producer Andrew Harrison Brown; Film Subjects and Rhino Caretakers James Mwenda and Joseph Wachira
WILDER THAN WILD: FIRES, FORESTS AND THE FUTURE
Wednesday, May 1 | 12:15 – 1:45 pm
Grades 6-12
Bay Area filmmakers take us on a journey from the Rim Fire of 2013 to the Wine Country wildfires of 2017, revealing how fire suppression and climate change have exposed our forests and wildland-urban landscapes to large, high-severity wildfires—and exploring strategies to mitigate future disasters. Director Kevin White | US 2018, 58 min
GUEST SPEAKERS: Director Kevin White, Producer Stephen Most
BACKYARD WILDERNESS – IN 3D!
Thursday, May 2 | 9:45 – 11:15am
Grades 1-5
Katie and her family live next to the woods, but they are too busy with their electronic devices to notice the wonders of nature that are right under their noses. As Katie gradually discovers the secrets that nature has hidden so close to her front door, we experience the joy she finds in her interactions with this new world. An amazing array of wildlife activity is captured inside dens, nests, forests, and ponds—in stunning 3D! Directors Susan Todd & Andrew Young | US 2018, 45 min
GUEST SPEAKER Melissa Tofflemoyer, Wildcare, with Sequoia, the Northern Spotted Owl
SHOWN WITH:
The Importance of Beeing
Kids explain why bees are so important to our food supply and what can we do to ensure their survival—and ours! Director Ksenia Firsova | US 2018, 2 min
Du Iz Tak?
Based on the book by Carson Ellis, this animated adaptation offers a microcosmic view of the unstoppable cycle of life. Director Galen Fott | US 2018, 11 min
Kuap
A tadpole coming-of-age tale. Director Nils Hedinger | Switzerland 2018, 8 min
MOTHERLOAD
Thursday, May 2 | 10:45am – 12:30pm
Grades 9-12
Motherload is a crowd-sourced documentary about a new mother’s quest to understand our cultural shift toward isolation and disconnection, what this could mean for the future, and how life on a cargo bike could be an antidote. It is an energetic, pedal-pumping portrait of the cargo bike movement as a search for freedom and connection in a gas-powered, digital and divided world. Director Liz Canning | US 2019, 81 min
GUEST SPEAKER: Director Liz Canning
THE SERENGETI RULES
Thursday, May 2 | 11:15am – 1:15pm
Grades 7-12
Beginning in the 1960s, a small band of young scientists headed out into the wilderness, driven by an insatiable curiosity about how nature works. Immersed in some of the most remote and spectacular places on Earth—from the majestic Serengeti to the Amazon jungle; from the Arctic Ocean to Pacific tide pools—they discovered a single set of rules that govern all life. Now in the twilight of their eminent careers, these five unsung heroes of modern ecology share the stories of their adventures, reveal how their pioneering work flipped our view of nature on its head, and give us a chance to reimagine the world as it could and should be. Director Nicholas Brown | UK 2018, 84 min
GUEST SPEAKER: Mary Power, film subject; Professor, Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley
KIDS IN ACTION AT THE EDGES OF THE EARTH
Thursday, May 2 | 12:00 – 1:45pm
Grades 5-8
These four short films will take you on a global adventure to Mongolia, Nepal, Greenland and Peru, where four young people connect with and enjoy the outdoors in some extreme and inspiring ways.
GUEST SPEAKERS: Director Neal Barenblat, Film Subject Tyler Armstrong
Boy Nomad
Nine-year old Janibek lives with his family in Mongolia’s Altai Mountains. His first love is racing horses, but this winter his father will bring him on the toughest journey in a nomad’s life: the winter migration. Director Niobe Thompson | Canada 2018, 21 min | In Mongolian with English subtitles
Reaching for the Andes
Fourteen-year-old Tyler Armstrong travels from Seattle to the Peruvian Andes to climb the almost 20,000-foot peak of Mount Artesonraju. It’s a technical climb with extreme elevation, but drastic conditions demand a change of plans before the ascent on this iconic mountain. Director Neal Barenblat | US 2019, 28 min | In English
My Mom Vala
Ten-year-old Mathilda learns the art of fly fishing from her mother Vala, who was raised by fishing guides and travels regularly for guiding work from Reykjavík to Greenland, a barren yet beautiful country we experience through Mathilda’s fantasies and Vala’s eyes. Director RC Cone | US 2018, 10 min | In English
RJ Ripper
Since learning to ride on a beat-up clunker to becoming the four-time national mountain biking champion at age 21, Rajesh (RJ) Magar’s story is one of boundless childhood dreaming and unstoppable determination tested on the rugged trails of the mighty Himalaya. Director Joey Schusler | US 2018, 20 min | In English and Nepali with English subtitles
Click image to view trailer
MINISCULE: MANDIBLES FROM FAR AWAY
Friday, May 3 | 9:45 – 11:45 am
Grades 1-5
When a young ladybug gets trapped in a box shipped thousands of miles away from its mountain home in France to a remote Caribbean island, its parent sets off on an urgent overseas rescue mission. With beachfront developers on the island threatening to demolish the local insects’ native habitats, bugs from both sides of the world unite to try to save them. This fun and innovative live-action/animation hybrid told entirely without dialogue offers a buzzy bug’s-eyed view of the ecological importance of our tiniest creatures. Directors Thomas Szabo & Hélène Giraud | France 2018, 90 min
GUEST SPEAKER: Guest Speaker: Stephanie Dole, Ph.D., The Beetle Lady
THE RIVER AND THE WALL
Friday, May 3 | 10:30am – 12:30 pm
Grades 7-12
The River and the Wall follows five friends on an immersive adventure through the Texas borderlands as they travel 1,200 miles along the Rio Grande River on horses, mountain bikes, and canoes to explore the potential impacts of a border wall on the natural environment. But as the wilderness gives way to the more heavily trafficked Lower Rio Grande Valley, they encounter the human side of the immigration debate and enter uncharted emotional waters. Director Ben Masters | US 2018, 99 min
GUEST SPEAKER: Producer Hillary Pierce
Click image to view trailer
THE WEIGHT OF WATER
Friday, May 3 | 11:15am – 1:00 pm
Grades 9-12
The Weight of Water is the story of Erik Weihenmayer, a blind adventurer who takes on the improbable journey of kayaking the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Erik has already overcome some stunning challenges for both sighted and blind people, including climbing Mount Everest, but the chaos of the whitewater rapids is a new and unpredictable ordeal that inspires new fears and critical choices. Director Michael Brown | UK 2018, 80 min
GUEST SPEAKERS: Director Michael Brown, Associate Producer Skyler Williams
INVITED GUEST: Film Subject Erik Weihenmayer
INTO THE CANYON
Friday, May 3 | 12:15pm – 2:00 pm
Grades 7-12
Journalists Pete McBride and Kevin Fedarko set out on assignment for National Geographic Magazine to traverse the Grand Canyon by foot. They hope this 750-mile trek will help them better understand one of America’s most revered landscapes and the commercial developments poised to alter it forever. Director Pete McBride | US 2018, 84 min
GUEST SPEAKER: Kenneth Brower, Environmental Writer