"Green Planet Films Presents” is our film screenings initiative, where we invite existing environmental film festivals from around the world to showcase 12 hours of documentary films and discussion which will include award winners and topical documentaries curated to our region.

Because of our coastal location, we will again present The International Ocean Film Festival, this year in partnership with Mystic Aquarium

DATES: October 15-16, 2022

LOCATION: Mystic Aquarium's MIlne Center for Ocean Science and Conservation

6 Programs, 2 hours each

Saturday 10-12pm >>>>> KIDS/FAMILY OCEAN SHORTS >>>>>

My Journey Across the Ocean 4 mins

Back to the Sea 6 mins

Mangrove Forests: Roots of the Sea 4 mins

Starfish Gallop With Hundreds of Tubular Feet 5 mins

Hungry Jellyfish 4 mins

Lionfish: Ocean Murder Hedgehogs 2 mins

Fish with Superpowers - The Clownfish and the Shark 5 mins

The Origin - Life around the Hot Spring 4 mins

The Promise of Offshore Wind: 3 mins

The Wonder of Wave Gliders: 3 mins

Clean Water From Ocean Wave 3 mins

The Power of a River: 3 mins

Nā Kama Kai - Children Of The Ocean 36 mins

DISCUSSION | Q&A

Saturday 1-3 pm >>>>> OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS >>>>>

Soul of the Ocean, Howard Wesley Hall (USA) 78 mins. Soul of the Ocean explores the complexity of ocean ecosystems. Spectacular underwater cinematography reveals communities of interdependent marine species and highlights the critical role biodiversity plays in maintaining a healthy ocean. Every species has a part to play. As humans become increasingly intimate with the ocean, we discover that we have a huge part to play as well.

Keepers of the Blue, Tomas Koeck (USA) 22 mins. A documentary examining several different oceanic environments as well as those that work to protect them.

DISCUSSION | Q&A

Saturday 4-6 pm >>>>> NEW YORK WATERWAYS >>>>>

Archipelago New York - An Island City, Thomas Halaczinsky (Germany) 53 min . Did you know there are whales a few miles outside the New York harbor, millions of oysters cleaning the water along the shore, and raptors living on high-rise buildings in Central Park? New York is an island city threatened by sea level rise. During the climate crisis, committed New Yorkers start to rethink their relationship with nature in this captivating documentary.

Windshipped. Sail Freight comes to the 21st Century. Jon Bowermaster (USA) 38 mins. Since Spring 2020, the 65-foot Schooner Apollonia has been sailing the Hudson River delivering goods from Hudson to New York City, with 15 ports-of-call along its route. All sans fossil fuels, it’s a very un-Amazon approach.

Living Dinosaurs. Andrea Kramar and Sarah Porter (USA) 6 mins. How horseshoe crabs have survived for eons in NY, NJ and why they’re vital to human health and safety.

DISCUSSION | Q&A

Sunday 10am-12pm >>>>> STUDENT FILMS >>>>>

Student films created for the IOFF and also from a student filmmaking workshop in Mystic CT called "My Favorite Fish Is ..."

Titles TBD

DISCUSSION | Q&A

Sunday 1-3 pm >>>>> KELP >>>>>

The Forest Stands Tall (2 mins) Abbey Dias (USA). From kelp forests in the ocean to forests on land, lifeforms evolved together as ecosystems – where function and diversity are more than the sum of the parts. As the world changes rapidly, we must learn from nature and reflect on the strength of this diversity. Stunning cinematography in this film explores how the ocean is intertwined with our lives, and why we must protect it.

The Blue Forest (35 mins) Philip Hamilton (UK). Kelp forests are one of the most vital ecosystems in the world, sequestering more carbon than equivalent areas on land. In Northern California, more than 97% of kelp has been lost due to climate change. In fact, seaweed and kelp forests around the globe are being threatened by human activity and the global race is on to protect them. Learning from scientists from around the world will help reverse this devastating trend.

The Ocean Solution (14 mins) Darcy Hennessey Turenne (USA) Farming under the sea? Meet Bren Smith, the ocean farming pioneer whose vertical kelp and shellfish farms are transforming the way food is produced. He discovered a new method of restorative ocean farming, producing large quantities of nutritious food while fighting the climate crisis, cleaning the ocean, creating aquatic habitat, and sustaining his organic sea-fairing way of life

DISCUSSION | Q&A

Sunday 4-6 pm >>>>> CORAL REEFS >>>>>

INTO THE BLUE: The Wonders of The Coral Triangle, Robert Fonollosa (Spain) (50 mins) Located between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, the Coral Triangle is often referred to as the global center of marine biodiversity. Home to hundreds of marine species, pristine coral reefs and some of the most colorful inhabitants of the ocean. Go deep into the blue around the Indonesian islands of Raja Ampat, Sulawesi, and Komodo and be mesmerized by stunning, up-close ocean beauty..

THE DARK HOBBY (56 mins) Paula Fouce. This riveting exposé on the tropical aquarium trade lays bare its savage “collecting” practices and astounding by-kill. With 28 million fish pushed through this lethal pipeline at any time, some species verge on extinction. But Native Hawaiians and others are challenging quixotic government regulations: in Hawaii you can't take corals, but tropical fish are fair game if you have just “$50 and a pulse.”.

DISCUSSION | Q&A

GOAL: The goal of this program is to bring to our community an illuminating platform, such as documentary film screenings, to help us expand our understanding of the critical environmental challenges that face us globally and locally today, plus celebrating successes that mitigate these challenges. Sample topics for this particular event are rising seas, fisheries, sharks, shipping and sonar, light houses, belugas, and plastic pollution. We aim to influence reasonable movement within people’s personal or business lives, or contact their government, to help implement changes that are important to them after seeing the films.

ABOUT the International Ocean Film Festival (IOFF)

The largest ocean film festival on Earth, the IOFF inspires ocean activism through through independent film. Founded in 2004 in San Francisco, CA, the IOFF is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is dedicated to restoring, protecting, and balancing ocean biodiversity - one film at a time.

ABOUT Green Planet Films

Green Planet Films is a non-profit distributor of Nature, Environment, and Human Ecology Films. Our mission is to disseminate, exhibit and discuss educational documentary motion pictures with academic institutions, businesses, and the public.

ABOUT Mystic Aquarium

Mystic Aquarium is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire people to care for and protect our ocean planet through conservation, education and research.