Trees Columbus' Wild & Scenic Film Festival 2020

Get Wild & Scenic - From Anywhere This Year

By Scott Berson

Nature is powerful, beautiful, and radical. It inspires people and it speaks to people and it forces them to confront themselves. On September 20, the Wild and Scenic Film Festival will bring powerful, beautiful, and radical films about nature to Columbus - only now you can watch from anywhere you want, and support Trees Columbus along the way.

The Wild and Scenic Film Festival is a yearly festival that “inspires environmental activism and a love for nature,” based every year out of Nevada City and Grass Valley, California. The festival goes “on tour” every year as well, traveling to different cities and towns all over America.

Last year, Columbus broke records for attendance as a tour location. No surprise. We know how important the environment is to us here in our river city.

This year the festival is going virtual, that doesn’t mean it’s any smaller. Paige Swift, head of fundraising and events for Trees Columbus, said she believes Columbus can break records again for attendance at the virtual festival as well.

“(Wild and Scenic) want to share these stories, they want communities to get inspired and involved, to make a difference. These are documentaries about things to do with the climate, endangered species, water quality,” she said. “Many festivals looked at the pandemic and decided to just pull all their programming. Wild and Scenic came up with a way for us to screen virtually.”

Swift said the livestream will have the feel and vibe of a live, in-person event, with a specially curated list of films that features topics relevant to the environment of Georgia and the South. One film even includes some local faces from Columbus State University, including earth and space sciences professor Troy Keller and students.

Some film topics include the stories of farmers working to produce fresh produce on military installations, the process of demolishing obsolete dams near Fort Benning, a team working to turn vacant lots into urban bee farms, and much more.

“The cool thing is, there is a live chat in real time too. There’s a sidebar where people can ask questions, make comments, and chat about the films. We will have the filmmakers on during the live chat,” Swift said, adding that there would be some light moderation to prevent any shenanigans.

The festival will be available on demand for five days as well, meaning you don’t have to watch the whole thing in one sitting or exactly at the start time. “You’re not dealing with seats in a theatre. You can watch it virtually everywhere. If your buddies from college are scattered, you can watch the show and talk to each other in the live chat,” said Swift.

Each ticket purchase also acts as a donation to Trees Columbus, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Over the decades, Trees Columbus has led efforts to protect the city’s tree canopy, promoted stewardship and environmental knowledge, and planted more than 18,000 trees.

“It’s not just a fundraiser,” Swift said. “It’s outreach, its collaboration, it’s education, and it’s connecting the community through these films.”

The festival goes live Sunday, September 20 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tickets range from $15 - $34, depending on the number of people in your party and whether you’d like to order a tasty stir fry kit from Nonic to eat while you watch.