San Francisco Ocean Film Festval

Cuttlefish. Photo:SF Ocean Film Festival

By Mary Jane Schramm

We're just days away from the 6th Annual San Francisco Ocean Film Festival! Here are some highlights:

For the first time, there will be a special program celebrating our sanctuaries and marine protected areas! See films on the Farallones and Cordell Bank Sanctuaries, the new Farallon Islands video, and California's Marine Protected Areas on Friday, February 20th from 2:00 pm to 4pm, at the Aquarium of the Bay, on the Embarcadero at Beach St.

Free admission with Aquarium day-ticket or Festival pass.

 

Saturday, during Program 2: Red Gold is a lushly photographed, masterfully scripted, and edgily scored documentary. A dark cloud hangs over Bristol Bay and the two Alaskan rivers where nearly 60 million salmon spawn. Big Mining wants to scrape off the mountaintop above the headwaters. Pebble Mine executives promise quick money, but the rivers, the salmon, and the fishermens' heritage and livelihood could all meet with swift extinction. If the mine goes through, Governor Palin will have much to answer for.

 

 

 

Sunday, during Program 6: Peace With Seals , a quirky and creative "documentary fable," takes an informative and darkly entertaining  look at the history and future of the highly endangered Mediterranean monk seal – and that of humanity. Mixing new and vintage footage interspersed with animation and science fiction film excerpts, the film profiles biologists, philosophers and a 98-year old seal hunter who lend a bizarre mixture of attitudes and history with scientific concerns. The factors that are sealing the fate of the Mediterranean monk seal have never been more clearly portrayed.

 

 

Sunday, during Program 8 Ice Bears of the Beaufort–stunning, unrushed cinematography and editing; natural sound with no narration; and a spare music score transform this film into a meditative plea to protect one of the most awesomely powerful—and comically playful—animals on earth. Can this magnificent bear and its largely unknown world of snow-capped mountains and magnificent skyscapes cope with ill-considered oil development, marine pollution, and global warming? It's a question perhaps only we can answer.

 

 

These are only some of the great films this year's festival is offering. For full program details and video clips visit here: