OCEAN CITY — The Wild & Scenic Film Festival will be making its fourth Ocean City appearance at Seacrets Morley Hall on Thursday, Nov. 13 with a special kids show set for the Sarbanes Center near Assateague Island on the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 15.
This year’s main festival offering features a menu of 15 short masterpieces over a two-hour span ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. The kids program will include seven cinematic gems in less than an hour that will leave families excited, energized and educated.
Hosted locally by Assateague Coastal Trust, the Wild & Scenic Film Festival is organized by a northern California watershed group, which each year assembles a catalog of award-winning, mostly environmentally-focused films and offers them to local conservation nonprofits to help educate and engage their communities.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to once again share these amazing films from around the world with our local audience,” said ACT Executive Director and Coastkeeper Kathy Philllips. “Many of the films showcase environmental issues which helps us to engage and inspire people around the challenges facing our planet and our local area. There’s even a film this year that features the efforts of a fellow Waterkeeper in Patagonia on a quest to save a mighty river from being tragically tamed by a dam.”
However, Phillips noted it’s not all about teaching or preaching, adding, “There is a healthy mix of adventure and pure fun which makes the festival as much about entertainment as education.”
The festival will include two screenings at Seacrets Morley Hall on Thursday, Nov. 13 — a matinee at 2 p.m. and an evening show at 6 p.m. Both events will feature Morley Hall’s crystal clear projection system, discounted food offerings, a silent auction and guest emcee Andrew Tawes from Outdoors Delmarva. Tickets are only $15 in advance and $20 at the door.
ACT has also selected a separate set of films from the Wild & Scenic catalog geared especially for a younger audience that will be presented by the organization’s Coast Kids program on the afternoon of Nov. 15. This screening will take place at the Sarbanes Coastal Ecology Lab (adjacent to Assateague Island National Seashore’s Visitors Center) and will be preceded by a special Coast Kids workshop on microscopopic bay critters. Tickets are available only at the door for $5 for Coast Kids members and $10 for non-members.
To purchase tickets, visit www.ActForBays.org or call 410-629-1538.