Showcase of the best FILMS in the world today.
Audience Award Winners:
Best Long Form Short Film: WITHOUT WATER
Best Short Form Short Film: ESTUARY
Best Animation Film: FOREST UNDER STRESS
Best Drama Film: LAST DAY ON EARTH
Best Cinematography: HERD
Best Sound & Music: NEAR MISS
Watch the Audience Feedback Video for each film:
FOREST UNDER STRESS, 9min., USA, Documentary/Animation
Directed by Michal Joy Hall, Bravo Ramírez, Rachel Lee Hall
In a forest plagued by drought, a group of mycelia fungus struggles to provide nutrients and moisture to a desperate root system, which affects the entire terrestrial story.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
LAST DAY ON EARTH, 5min., USA, Drama
Directed by Christian Jacob Eisenbarth
An old man lives alone in the depths of a Washington forest, unknowingly experiencing his last day on earth. He embarks through an enchanted forest, only to find he’s not alone. In his last moments, he discovers the meaning of his life.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
ESTUARY, 3min,. USA, Animation
Directed by Warren Bass
ESTUARY is a sparse, meditational animation with some of the values and attributes of a visual haiku. Its images are loosely based on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the James River. As an experimental work expressed through forms in motion, ESTUARY treats hand-drawn animation as an analog to dance and poetry. Concept, animation, and graphics by Warren Bass. TRT 3:20.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
HORSESHOE CRABS: How 350-Million-Year-Old Sea Creatures are Vital to Human Survival, 6min., Documentary
Directed by Andrea Kramar
With the worldwide race to develop and manufacture vaccines came renewed interest in horseshoe crabs. These sea creatures are over 350 million years old and their blue blood has been critical to the development of COVID-19 vaccines. Their epicenter is here in the northeast and they descend on our beaches every spring in the thousands. Although the bright blue blood played a vital role in helping to end the pandemic, their numbers are in decline. We spoke with some “local heroes” who have been protecting them, and went out into the waters of Brooklyn with elementary students to monitor and tag them. Numerous species, including humans, depend on horseshoe crabs and it’s up to us to help ensure their survival.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
FROM 3 TO 3, 8min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Xingyan Guo, Scout Raimondo, Jared Yao
Every day at 3AM, Devon Deblois starts his rounds as a city sanitation worker in Middletown, Connecticut. While sustaining the community in this irreplaceable but invisible position, Devin is also looking for a place “to not be totally ignored”…
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
HERD, 15min., Canada, Documentary
Directed by David Borish
In the startling collapse of the once massive George River Caribou Herd – and a subsequent total hunting ban – Inuit in Labrador, Canada, were abruptly confronted with a new reality: life without a fundamental source of food, culture, and wellbeing. Through Inuit voices, HERD tells the story of the social, emotional, and cultural disruptions from cascading ecological change by putting an essential human face to the caribou declines.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
NEAR MISS, 27min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Olivia Rosenbloom
After a 2015 explosion at the Torrance refinery rattled the community, local activists discovered the blast almost led to a catastrophic release of one of the most toxic chemicals used in refining. Soon after, Torrance activists joined forces with environmental justice activists in Wilmington, uncovering past cover-ups and demanding safer communities by way of tighter restrictions. In the midst of a global climate crisis, Near Miss sheds light on the politics of public safety, environmental health, and environmental racism.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
WITHOUT WATER, 20min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Jonathan Hyla
“Without Water” is a film that documents the ongoing dispute between the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power and the residents of Long Valley, California. Filmed by acclaimed director Jonathan Hyla and narrated by actor David Chokachi, “Without Water” dives into LAWDP’s plan to reduce or eliminate irrigation allotments on leased lands in the Eastern Sierra’s Long and Little Round Valleys. Now under pressure from climate change and the ever-growing needs of Los Angeles county, a diverse coalition of ranchers, environmentalists, fishermen, indigenous tribes, and others are coming together to fight for their land amid an uncertain future.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
Environmental Film and Screenplay Festival 