The Festival of Ocean Films, hosted by Georgia Strait Alliance, is on the road to mark its 9th year, travelling to Victoria on May 30 and to the Sunshine Coast’s Pender Harbour on June 9.
This year’s screenings carry strong messages about the current state of the world’s oceans to honour World Oceans Day, while also serving to inspire audiences to care about conservation and to become a force for positive change.
Toronto-based filmmaker Julia Barnes was compelled to act when she realized how the ecosystems we depend on were in jeopardy. She learned to dive in order to set out on a mission to expose some of the biggest threats facing the ocean in feature film “Sea of Life” (2017).
This film, Winner of the Cinema Verde Film Festival (2017) and of the EnviroFilm Festival (2017), takes audiences on a provocative journey, through the most stunning and threatened ecosystems on the planet. It shows how changes to oceans are disrupting the planet’s oxygen supply and irrevocably impacting marine life, but also offers a rallying movement to save them.
Mark Leiren-Young, a Vancouver based journalist and screenwriter, brings audiences a short film about the longest-living Southern Resident killer whale, with: The Hundred-Year-Old Whale. An official selection of the Colorado Environmental Film Festival (2018), Water Docs (2018), ReFrame Film Festival (2018), International Ocean Film Festival (2018) and, most recently named Best Documentary at the Writer’s Guild of Canada Awards (2018), this short allows audiences to meet ‘Granny,’ the orca matriarch that lived off the coast of BC until she died last year.
“These films awaken and stir audiences with their incredible underwater cinematography, but we know the beauty beneath the sea is in real danger and it’s up to us to take action to protect our oceans,” says Christianne Wilhelmson, executive director of Georgia Strait Alliance.
Screenings in Victoria and Pender Harbour run from 7pm-9:30pm. There are Question-and-Answer sessions with Julia Barnes in Victoria, via Skype, and in-person with Mark Leiren-Young in Pender Harbour.
Tickets are $15 for general admission, or $13 for members of Georgia Strait Alliance and Ruby Lake Lagoon Society—our community partner for the screening in Pender Harbour.
Net profits will be donated to Georgia Strait Alliance to assist with the organization’s mission to protect and restore the marine environment, and promote the sustainability of the Strait of Georgia, its adjoining waters and communities.
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TICKETS
Victoria | May 30 | 7pm | Capitol 6 Theatre
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Pender Harbour | June 9 | 7pm | Pender Harbour Music Society
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TRAILERS
About the Vancouver Festival of Ocean Films
The Festival of Ocean Films is dedicated to the issues, personalities and sports of the world’s oceans. The goal is to increase awareness about relationships with oceans, while educating and motivating audiences: www.georgiastrait.org/vfof
About Georgia Strait Alliance
The non-profit conservation organization collaborates with individuals, businesses and government to protect and restore the marine environment, and promote the sustainability of the Strait of Georgia, its adjoining waters, and communities: www.georgiastrait.org