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Film Descriptions
Hush, 5 minutes
Produced by Mike Seely
Hush is about listening to our environments. The film features nature sounds recordist Paul Matzner, the founder of the Nature Sounds Society in Oakland. With Matzner as our guide, this short film explores our auditory worlds by contrasting images and sounds in nature with everyday noises and urban surroundings.
Good Riddance: Rats, 5 minutes
Directed by Nick Hilligoss and produced by The Natural History Unit, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
In Good Riddance: Rats there's a plague of rats in town, and the local milk bar is no exception. After watching the effective but highly toxic methods of the SPLAT exterminators across the road, the shopkeeper gives Eco a chance to try his more eco-friendly approach.
Monumental: David Brower's Fight for Wild America, 74 minutes
Produced by Kelly Duane, Loteria Films
From the moment David Brower first witnessed the extraordinary beauty of the Yosemite Valley, his life was tied to the fight to preserve American wild lands for future generations. Monumental explores the dramatic and lyrical story of Brower and his colleagues' unrelenting campaigns - fought through lobbying, art, and hard-hitting advertising - to protect and establish some of our most treasured National Parks.
Here, 5 minutes
Produced by Graeme Powell, Windfall Light Productions
Here is an expressionistic treatment through images, at times abstract, and music, of the current fate of the countryside as it becomes swallowed by urban growth and development.
High Desert Trout, 19 minutes
Produced by Michael Kamis
New Mexico is one of the premier places in the country to test your grace and style with a fly rod. From pine tree forests to sandstone bluffs, New Mexico offers a variety of conditions to try the skills of any fly fisherman. High Desert Trout presents the simple joys derived from fishing in New Mexico's waters.
Nature's Blueprints, 10 minutes
Produced by Michael Seely
Architect Eugene Tsui plumbs the depths of nature's wisdom seeking inspiration for his architectural designs. Nature's Blueprints takes us on a trip to the edges of Tsui's imagination. His fantastic structures provoke questions about the future of our built environments and our relationship to the natural world.
Farmer Jason, 45 minutes
Live music from Nashville Tennessee
"Ringenberg [Farmer Jason], who is one of the genuinely nicest guys you could ever meet, deserves a lot of credit for making [music] that’s fun, educational, and capable of entertaining kids and their parents. If you have kids, you should check this one out. Grade: A" [Mike Piercy RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH]
The Sandbox, 13 minutes
Produced by Marilyn A. Belec, The National Film Board of Canada
The Sandbox is a richly imagined, animated tale in which two children create an entire world in their sandbox for their small friend Bear. Then people come into their play world and suddenly are everywhere. Bear disappears into the forest. The children search for him but they're overwhelmed by the noise and pollution. They find him on top of a mountain but realize there's no place left for bears. Maybe they should start over...? Can the children make a better world for Bear?
Good Riddance: Flies, 5 minutes
Directed by Nick Hilligoss and produced by The Natural History Unit, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
In Good Riddance: Flies the hot weather has drawn a lot of thirsty customers to the Emu's Arms bar - but it's also attracted a lot of flies. So the barman gives Good Riddance a call. Eco arrives and releases his team of highly skilled frogs, and the chase is on. That spider in the Eco Van just might come in handy too ...
Turtle World, 9 minutes
Directed by Nick Hilligoss and produced by The Natural History Unit, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
In the highly acclaimed animated film Turtle World, a lone sea turtle travels through space, her breath creating a whole new atmosphere. This becomes filled with forests, rivers, mountains and enterprising monkeys...so enterprising that they are forced to learn about sustainability the hard way.
Good Riddance: Termites, 5 minutes
Directed by Nick Hilligoss and produced by The Natural History Unit, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
While Eco is out, ridding the world of pests the natural way, a nest of termites are literally eating him out of house and home in Good Riddance: Termites. This calls for the expert termite eater, the echidna, and not a moment too soon.
Crab Orchard Critters, 4 minutes
Produced by Doug Canfield, Red Can Productions
Crab Orchard Critters is a musical and visual sensation depicting the amazing wildlife and scenery found at Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge in Marion, Illinois.
Handle with Care, 3 minutes
Directed by Alexis Bowler and Sandy Hund, and produced by The World Wildlife Fund-UK
Although the resources on planet Earth are plentiful, they are not unlimited. This claymation short, Handle With Care, depicts what can happen if Earth's resources are depleted beyond sustainability.
Bringing Back the Cranes, 18 minutes
Produced by Jeffrey Huxmann, SolTerra Productions and the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
Bringing Back the Cranes chronicles the decline of the whooping crane species from over-hunting and highlights the incredible reintroduction methods developed to teach captive-born crane chicks how to migrate by following an ultralight aircraft. Is a wild, self-sustaining, migrating whooping crane population feasible today?
Healthy Oceans, Healthy Humans, 4 minutes
Produced by Tree Media Group and Jim Garavente
Healthy Oceans, Healthy Humans carries the message that all life on Earth, including our own, depends on the oceans. This short film encourages ocean conservation by pointing out that our health depends on healthy oceans, and it suggests simple things we can all do to take better care of the oceans.
Good Riddance: Snails, 5 minutes
Directed by Nick Hilligoss and produced by The Natural History Unit, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Garden of Eatin', an organic fruit and vegetable garden, produces natural pesticide-free vegetables...just ask the Snails, who are devouring everything in sight. When Eco arrives to do a bit of shopping in Good Riddance: Snails, the garden's owner has crossed everything off her list except the potatoes, which are safe underground. Eco needs groceries; the owner needs to get rid of the snails. As usual, Eco comes up with an ingenious and earth-friendly solution!
Islands, Rats, and Seabirds, 19 minutes
Produced by Aaron Hoffman, Scientific Outreach Media
Islands, Rats, and Seabirds was produced in 2005 for researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Landcare Research in New Zealand. It describes the research being performed to determine the effects of native seabirds and invasive rats on the plants, seeds, and soils of islands in New Zealand. This outreach video was produced primarily for the benefit of the islands' owners. It provides an excellent presentation of the ecological complexities of invasive species.
Last Stand of the Great Bear, 56 minutes
Produced by Stella Cha and Anne Marie Hammers, National Geographic
One of the largest intact temperate rainforests in North America, a place conservationists call "Great Bear," lies on Canada's Pacific coast north of Vancouver. Grizzlies, black bear and wolves roam this ancient forest while dolphins, seals and killer whales patrol its myriad inlets and bays. Wild salmon run in the midst of it all - connecting the forest to the sea. Now, with the Great Bear rainforest under threat from logging, scientists are racing to prove that this region is so extraordinary that it must be protected. In Last Stand of the Great Bear, National Geographic joins a team of experts on a 250-mile scientific adventure as they sail through the pristine waterways of this remarkable place.
Young Agrarians, 8 minutes
Produced and directed by Johanna Divine
Young Agrarians explores the ethic and appeal of small-scale, sustainable farming. Shot during the spring and summer of 2003 on a road trip from Palmer, Alaska, to Tumacacori, Arizona, the film relates the stories of small-scale farmers, ranchers and market gardeners of all ages and backgrounds who have been drawn by their love for the land to undertake the most basic and noble of occupations - growing food.
River Spirits, 28 minutes
Produced by Francis Paynter, Whitewater Films
River Spirits tells a story of many dimensions. It documents the first-ever kayak descent of Carney Creek, a wild river in the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy, the largest unfragmented mountain ecosystem in southern British Columbia, Canada. In the Ktunaxa language it recounts the myth of Yawo'nek, the water monster of the first people to inhabit this magnificent landscape. River Spirits teaches us, in stunning photography and informed narrative, how every part of the wild environment contributes to sustaining our planet.
Good Riddance: Air Pollution, 5 minutes
Directed by Nick Hilligoss and produced by The Natural History Unit, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
An unscheduled stop on a railroad crossing leads to a radical redesign of the Eco Van. So what do you get when you join the front half of a VW Beetle with the rear of a Morris Minor van? A very quiet, pollution-free vehicle, albeit one without an engine. Good Riddance: Air Pollution shows alternative energy sources are all around, waiting to be tapped - the sun, the wind, the rain...maybe even a couple of freeloading rats.
Archive of the 2004 Schedule and film descriptions.
 Far North Conservation Film Festival
101 12th Ave., Room 262, Box 11
Fairbanks, Alaska 99701
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