3rd Annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival films showcase wilderness in all of its forms

Adam Bradley's walk from north to south across the length of Nevada had a purpose: explore the impact on wildlife and habitat of the planned transmisison line set to deliver renewably-sourced energy throughout the state. Photo by John C. Tull.

Nevadans will be hearing the call of the wild as the Nevada Wilderness Project’s 3rd Annual Nevada Wild & Scenic Film Festival appears in three locations: 6 p.m., Thursday, October 13, at The Grove, 95 Foothill Dr. at S. Virginia St., Reno; 7 p.m., Wednesday, October 26 at the Mesquite Community Theater, 150 N. Yucca St., Mesquite; and 6 p.m., Wednesday, November 2 at the Rio Hotel Casino, Brazilia Room, 3700 W. Flamingo Rd., Las Vegas. The events showcase 100 minutes of films to inspire, engage and energize viewers about wilderness in all of its forms, with additional fun, raffle prizes and eco-informational displays, plus live music, tasty food and micro-brews at the Reno and Las Vegas events.

The festival’s 14 films range in length from two to 28 minutes and in tone from awe-inspiring to quirky as they examine wilderness in all of its forms, from underground labyrinths to mountain heights. Reno and Las Vegas event tickets are $10 in advance (available at the Nevada Wilderness Project website) $12 at the door and $5 for students with ID. Mesquite event tickets are $5 in advance and $8 at the door, with youth 13 and under free and are available at the Mesquite Community Theater Box Office, 702-345-4499.

The films include a first for the festival, a Nevada-focused film, Walking the Line: New Energy in the Old West, chronicling Reno resident Adam Bradley’s historic hike tracing the Southwest Intertie Project (SWIP) transmission line’s future route across the state. The line will carry renewably-sourced energy throughout Nevada. “Hiking to raise awareness of the SWIP corridor was a unique experience; the environment may appear desolate, but the journey wasn’t,” said Bradley. “I was consistently surprised by the amount of wildlife out there as well as the inspiration provided by the landscape,” he added.

Other films include:

Animals Save the Planet: Meerkats – One in a series of humorous animated short films produced for Animal Planet by Academy Award-winning studio Aardman Animations (Wallace & Gromit; Chicken Run) in which animals give humans tips on how to live an eco-friendly lifestyle. In this episode, meerkats weigh in on auto emissions.
Nico’s Challenge – A 13-year-old boy faces special challenges when he decides to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the world’s highest freestanding mountain. His goal: raise money and deliver free wheelchairs to the disabled people of Tanzania. The film reveals the outcome and much more.
Eagles Among the Swarm – This hauntingly beautiful film reveals the thousands of Pacific Dunlin birds who spend the winter in Boundary Bay, British Columbia. At the season’s peak, numbers can reach up to 20,000 birds at a time, with enormous flocks racing and circling over the calm waters like a flickering ballet – all under the watchful eyes of the waiting raptors.
Animals Save the Planet: Supermarket Bags – What do camels, kangaroos and pelicans have in common? They bring their own bags when they go shopping.
Coast is Clear: Learning from Our Mistakes – The Canadian government is considering a proposal from Enbridge for a 1,170-kilometer pipeline from Alberta’s tar sands to the coast of British Columbia. The pipeline would bring more than 200 crude oil tankers annually to this spectacular coast, many of them larger than the Exxon Valdez.
Animals Save the Planet: Energy Efficient Penguin – When a pedaling penguin is your source of power, it’s smart to save fish by switching to energy-saving bulbs.
Crossroads: Sage Grouse – A film for the Montana Audubon Society about the impact of oil and gas development on sage grouse, a species recently warranted for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Sage grouse have been lost from about half of their historical environments. Their numbers in Nevada have greatly declined due to loss, fragmentation and habitat degradation.
Into Darkness – Journey along with a group of cavers who push through impossibly small passages thousands of feet underground to access some of the final frontiers on earth. The images and sounds of these spectacular and remote wilderness caves reveal a fantastic world unlike anything we experience on the surface.
Oktapodi – Two octopi help each other in a comical escape from the grasps of a stubborn restaurant cook.
The Fishman – That’s what they call sound engineer Mike Kasic, who lives along the Yellowstone River in Livingston, Montana, and spends his days swimming with the current in one of the few remaining undammed rivers in the U.S. Kasic watches trout in fast currents filled with frothing water tornadoes and stops occasionally to make way for a crossing bison. His message is simple: a river is more than its water; what lies beneath is a wilderness is often overlooked but critical for the ecosystem.
Animals Save the Planet: Gassy Cows – This animated short is humorous as well as provocative. What are all of those flatulent cows doing to the planet?
Border Country – Sometimes a mountain is just a mountain, a climb just a climb. But sometimes it’s more than that. Jeremy Collins and Mikey Schaefer climb a new route on Yosemite’s Middle Cathedral in honor of two friends killed in a climbing accident. The film is a tribute to Jonny Copp and Micah Dash and a response to the catastrophe and the restorative beauty of nature.
Brower Youth Award: De’Anthony Jones – De’Anthony is one of six 2010 winners of the Brower Youth Awards established by the Earth Island Institute in honor of the founder and legendary activist David R. Brower. De’Anthony teaches his peers at Mission High School in San Francisco about environmental justice and ecological sustainability.

Wild & Scenic Film Festival national sponsorship partners include CLIF Bar, Grist.org, Klean Kanteen, Osprey Packs, Patagonia and Sierra Nevada Brewing. Nevada underwriting sponsors are Caesars Entertainment and Las Vegas Meetings. Nevada sponsors include birdandhike.com, Encore Productions, First Solar, Intuit, KRNV-News 4, KSNV-News 3, NVEnergy, REI and Silver Sage Center for Family Medicine. For more information regarding the Nevada Wild & Scenic Film Festival or to volunteer, please visit the Nevada Wilderness Project website or call 775-657-8430.