Aspen goes wild

At this point in ski season, locals have spring fever, and the organizers of Friday’s Wild and Scenic Film Festival kept that in mind when choosing their lineup.

The Wild and Scenic Film Festival is based in California and partners with nonprofits who want to bring the films to their local community. When Patagonia and the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies perused the organization’s offerings for the festival’s second annual stop in Aspen, they decided to steer clear of ski movies.

“As much as we all love ski films, we avoided selecting any of those,” said Amanda Boyle, ACES event coordinator. “As the seasons turn warmer, we wanted to inspire people to think about the impact they will have on the natural world in the coming months and ways they can get involved and give back.”

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Theresa Cook, manager of the Patagonia store in Snowmass Village, which is partnering with ACES on the event, said themes popped up as they selected 12 films from the over 400 submissions available.

“This water theme came out, and also this theme of experiencing nature and then being inspired to help protect it,” Cook said.

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Another consideration was the family-friendly aspect of the event: Cook and Boyle tried to keep to movies that were less than 20 minutes long and appropriate for all audiences.

The exception is the 24-minute “Martin’s Boat.” A film about the Grand Canyon directed by Basalt resident Pete McBride, it wouldn’t be right to pass that one up, they said. Another Grand Canyon film by McBride, “Leave it as it is,” is also included in the lineup.

Within those themes though, others emerged, Boyle said, such as development (“Rabbit Island”), wildfire (“The Fire Next Time”) and education (“The Way We Eat”).

And the festival has a larger theme of philanthropy. All the expenses associated with putting on the event have been underwritten by its sponsors (Aspen Daily News, Aspen Sports, Forum Phi, The Gant, SQNSport and KSPN), so every dollar made will go to Tomorrow’s Voices.

Founded by the late Willard Clapper, Tomorrow’s Voices engages high school students throughout the Roaring Fork Valley in civic dialogue. Under the wing of ACES since 2013, the organization has gotten thousands of high-school students involved and currently has 80 enrolled.