The Wild and Scenic Film Festival is coming to Orcas Center on Friday, Nov. 14 and Saturday, Nov. 15, with a new selection of films each evening at 7:30 p.m.

Back for its second year and co-produced by Orcas Center and the San Juan Preservation Trust, the Wild and Scenic Film Festival offers a collection of short documentary films focused on environmental issues and a celebration of our planet. Tickets are $10 or $5 for students available at www.orcascenter.org or 376-ACT1.

Film line-up

Friday night

“The Joy of Air” (Canada, 2013, 4 minutes) by Bryan Smith and Fitz Cahall. Leave the ground beneath your feet, rise up, your inner legend greet. But remember, what goes up must come down. This film will also air on Saturday.

“Cascada” (U.S., 2013, 8 minutes) by Anson Fogel and Shannon Ethridge. Tangled vines. Endless rain. Dodgy hotel rooms. Mud. Biting flies. Aggressive viruses … perfection. Is this a vacation?

“Ryan’s Stories” (U.S. 2013, 7 minutes). by Anson Fogel, Aimee Tetreault and Camp4 Collective. Ryan Hudson grew up in and out of homeless shelters. Ryan was introduced to snowboarding through Outdoor Outreach, a nonprofit dedicated to using outdoor activities to empower at risk youth. Now competing as a semi-pro athlete and serving as a brand ambassador for The North Face, Ryan’s story shares just how transformational the outdoors can be.

“The Story of Solutions” (U.S., 2013, 9 minutes) by Louis Fox, Erica Priggen, Annie Leonard, Jonah Sachs and Ruben DeLuna. We’re told to cheer a growing economy – more roads, malls and stuff! Even though our health indicators are worsening, income inequality is growing and polar icecaps are melting. But what if the goal of our economy wasn’t more, but better?

“From The Spawning Grounds” (U.S., 2011, 3 minutes) by Thomas B. Dunklin. Plunge into the clear cold water of the Salmon River and get a fish-eye view of the river and its inhabitants. The underwater footage of salmon and steelhead is accompanied by a song and poem from Karuk artist Brian D. Tripp.

“Sacred Headwaters” (Canada, 2012, 4 minutes) by Paul Colangelo. The shared birthplace of three salmon rivers in Northern Canada, the traditional territory of the Tahltan First Nation, and home to an incredible ecosystem of large mammals, the Sacred Headwaters is at risk of losing all that makes it sacred to resource extraction.

“COMPOST-a-lujah!” (Canada, 2012, 3 minutes) by Christopher Paetkau and Trevor Gill. Let’s face it: composting isn’t the most glamorous of topics or activities. It can be dirty, rotten and smelly. But it doesn’t have to be.

“The Man Who Lived on His Bike” (Canada, 2012, 3 minutes) by Guillaume Blanchet. After 382 days spent riding through the streets of Montreal, being sometimes quite cold, sometimes quite hot – and sometimes quite scared, Blanchet dedicated this movie to his dad. This film will also play on Saturday.

“A Brief History of the 5-cent Bag Tax,” (U.S., 2013, 2 minutes) by Craig Schattner, Adam Walker and Emil Superfin. When your city is overflowing with plastic bags, how will you react? Jack Green, head of the Department of the Environment, is on a mission to rid the city of its plastic bag scourge.

“SLOMO” (U.S., 2013, 16 minutes) by Josh Izenberg and Amanda Micheli. Depressed and frustrated with his life, Dr. Kitchin abandons his career as a neurologist and moves to Pacific Beach. There he undergoes a radical transformation into SLOMO, trading his lab coat for a pair of rollerblades and his IRA for a taste of divinity.

“Glacier Caves: Mt. Hood’s Secret World” (U.S., 2013, 31 minutes by. Ed Jahn, Amelia Templeton, Andy Maser, Steve Amen, Hayden Peters, Katie Campbell and Todd Sonflieth. After rappelling 15 stories into a hole in Oregon’s Sandy Glacier, adventurers encounter a mile of caves and tunnels laced with waterfalls, white water, towering ice sculptures and otherworldly light.

Saturday night

“Into The Mind” (U.S., 2013, 12 minute) by Eric Crosland, Dave Mossop, Malcolm Sangster. Experience the majesty of Alaska, Bolivia, the Himalaya and beyond, and dive into the mind of a common skier as he attempts the ultimate mountain.

“Raptor Blues” (U.S., 2013, 2 minutes) by Ian Timothy. A musical stop-motion animation explaining the dangerous effects of rodenticides on birds of prey in a way that everyone can understand.

“Field Spotlight: Monique Pool” (Suriname/U.S., 2013, 6 minutes) by Peter Stonier, John Martin, Becca Field and Sebastian Perry. Monique Pool, founder of the Green Heritage Fund Suriname, finds herself “slothified” after an area of forest in Suriname is cut down. Monique rescues more than 200 animals, mostly sloths, and brings them to an emergency shelter, which also happens to be her home.

“Walk On Water” (U.S., 2013, 5 minutes) by Andy Maser. Having been paralyzed from the waist down in a ski accident, Greg Mallory finds new life through whitewater kayaking.

“Sage Steppes: 800 Miles on the Oregon Desert Trail”  (U.S., 2013, 9 minutes), by the Oregon Natural Desert Association, Wahoo Films. Join expert long-distance hiker Sage Clegg as she becomes the first person to journey for 800 miles across the newly created Oregon Desert Trail, from the center of the state to nearly the Idaho border.

“My First Fish” (U.S., 2013, 7 minutes) by Ben Galland. A boy catches his first fish. After an epic battle, the boy has a chance to hold the fish and once they make eye contact, the memory is etched into the child’s brain, forever instilling a connection to the wild and the foundation for environmental stewardship.

“From the Ground to the Clouds” (Tanzania, 2013, 8 minutes) by Denise Zmekhol. Fifty years ago Jane Goodall set out to study the wild chimpanzees of Tanzania with little more than a pair of second-hand binoculars, some pencils and a notebook. Now her team uses mobile devices, satellite imagery and cloud-based mapping technologies to create a comprehensive picture of the conservation challenges in the Congo Basin.

“The New Environmentalists: Weaving A Movement” (U.S./Indonesia, 2013, 4.5 minutes) by John Antonelli, Barry Schienberg and Todd Miro. When Indonesian marble mining companies began to exploit the pristine mountains surrounding her West Timor homeland, Mama Aleta Baun organized the villagers in a weaving protest that lasted months and received international recognition.

“A Life Well Lived/Jim Whitaker” (U.S., 2013, 4 minutes) by Eric Becker. Legendary Mountaineer Jim Whittaker talks risk, beauty and adventure on the 50th anniversary of his historic summit of Everest.

“Yosemite: A Gathering of Spirit” (U.S., 2013, 25 minutes) by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan. One hundred and fifty years ago, The Yosemite Grant, signed by Abraham Lincoln, forever preserved the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. Yosemite Conservancy partnered with filmmakers, Burns and  Duncan to bring history to life.