The Seacoast Environmental Film Festival is a highly successful, day-long event held at the Kittery Community Center STAR Theatre, that brings together Seacoast area environmentalists, activists, educators, and interested filmgoers to watch and discuss award winning documentaries about critical environmental issues that are globally important and locally relevant.
8:30 Caffeine Kick Off
9:30 A Watershed Moment
The short film “A Watershed Moment” follows the multi-year, multi-group effort to restore fish passage in the Bagaduce River Watershed—a story to inspire hope in nature’s resilience and the power of partnership.
The short film “A Watershed Moment” follows the multi-year, multi-group effort to restore fish passage in the Bagaduce River Watershed—a story to inspire hope in nature’s resilience and the power of partnership.
Meet the Panelists
Joshua L. Royte is the Senior Conservation Scientist for The Nature Conservancy in Maine. Focus on the conservation of diverse geographies from forests and rivers and restoration planning and monitoring to detect change and suggest alternative paths. He supports multiple partnerships local to global including collaborations for Penobscot River restoration, World Fish Migration Foundation, and advises freshwater conservation and restoration in Europe
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12:10 Mushrooms, Weakness and Doubt
Poems by Sylvia Plath and Kay Ryan take the peripheral status of the fungal kingdom as an invitation to consider the scientific knowns and unknowns, and cultural significance, of mushrooms
Poems by Sylvia Plath and Kay Ryan take the peripheral status of the fungal kingdom as an invitation to consider the scientific knowns and unknowns, and cultural significance, of mushrooms
Meet the Panelists
Kimberly Cloutier Green is the author of The Next Hunger (2013, Bauhan Publishing) and Openings for Light to Pass Through, out just this month (April 2025). A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems have been published in several literary journals. Her honors include grants and fellowships from the Maine Community Foundation, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, MacDowell, and Hawthornden Literary Retreat. She is a former Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, NH, and the Host-Producer of the Rice Pudding Poetry Podcast & Live Series in Kittery, Maine.
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Serita Frey is a microbial ecologist with over 30 years of experience studying microbes in the environment. She received her Ph.D. in Ecology from Colorado State University and is currently a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of New Hampshire where she where she is Co-Director of the Center for Soil Biogeochemistry and Microbial Ecology (SoilBioME). Her research examines how environmental change is altering the structure and function of forest ecosystems, with an emphasis on soil fungal communities and nutrient cycling processes. Her research team maintains five long-term global change experiments at the Harvard Forest Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site. Dr. Frey was recently named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Ecological Society of America. Awards include Eminent Ecologist (Kellog Biological Station), Pettingill Endowed Lectureship in Natural History (University of Michigan Biological Station), Distinguished Ecologist Alumna (Colorado State University), Associate Professor of the Year (UNH), a Bullard Fellowship (Harvard University), and a National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award. For more information: https://colsa.unh.edu/soil-biome
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Holly Wren Spaulding is an award winning writer, teaching artist, and founder and artistic director of Poetry Forge, where she offers creative writing workshops, retreats, and a manuscript incubator. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Trinity College Dublin. Recent publications include Familiars (Alice Greene & Co., 2020), Fire (St. Brigid Press, 2021), and Between Us (Alice Greene & Co., 2022). Spaulding's poems, essays, reviews and articles have appeared in numerous magazines, journals and anthologies, including Elemental: A Collection of Michigan Creative Nonfiction and The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal. She volunteers at Nooney Farm where she helped launch the flower CSA, creates bouquets, and teaches an annual flower arranging workshop. She lives in Kittery Point, Maine. www.hollywrenspaulding.com & www.poetryforge.us
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2:30 Revolutions
A short documentary that asks sports enthusiasts, brands, and manufacturers to think differently about environmental sustainability by putting sporting goods at the centre of the conversation. The film uses the bike as a storytelling device to ask some important questions about sustainability such as: What happens to our “toys” when we’re done with them? What happens to a bike at its end-of-life stage? What would it take to design everything with the end in mind?
A short documentary that asks sports enthusiasts, brands, and manufacturers to think differently about environmental sustainability by putting sporting goods at the centre of the conversation. The film uses the bike as a storytelling device to ask some important questions about sustainability such as: What happens to our “toys” when we’re done with them? What happens to a bike at its end-of-life stage? What would it take to design everything with the end in mind?
Meet the Panelists
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Ann Thompson is a Teaching Artist and Studio Metasmith from Biddeford. She began "Bike Part Art " at the former Community Bicycle Center, now APEX Youth Connection, to pass on her metalworking skills to children and youth. "Bike Part Art" uses parts from bicycles donated to the "Earn a Bike" program to create jewelry, mosaics and sculpture. This year she has been collaborating with APEX on hosting the only Teen Science Cafe in Maine. The Cafe Network was created to excite Teens about the variety of careers in STEM and to diversify the field. The Network is funded by the National Science Foundation and STEMnext. Ann also offers residencies and workshops in public schools, libraries and afterschool programs. She is a member of The Maine Crafts Association, The Society of North American Goldsmiths and the New England Mosaic Society.
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3:45 Farming While Black
Farming While Black is a feature-length documentary film which examines the historical plight of Black farmers in the United States and the rising generation reclaiming their rightful ownership to land and reconnecting with their ancestral roots.
Farming While Black is a feature-length documentary film which examines the historical plight of Black farmers in the United States and the rising generation reclaiming their rightful ownership to land and reconnecting with their ancestral roots.
Meet the Panelists
Muhidin Libah (he/him), Executive Director and co-founder of the Somali Bantu Community Association, was born in Southern Somalia, grew up in a Kenyan refugee camp, and came to the United States in 2004. He has co-founded multiple nonprofits including the Middle Jubba Relief and Sustainability Organization, Somali Bantu Community Association of Syracuse, and Somali Bantu Community Association of Maine. His special expertise and focus includes food production, food security, and sustainability. He has extensive experience farming in Somalia with the skills and knowledge to teach his community members many elements of their cultural heritage. He graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a B.S. in Natural Applied Science with a Biology Concentration and a Minor in Holistic Health.
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Akilah Campbell has over 15 years of experience in farming, teaching, curriculum & program development, and community organizing. She is a former cofounder of a community center that focused on farming education, food justice, and social justice issues, where she developed and implemented programs in these areas. She has also worked at the national level to help farmers who are Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color with technical assistance to promote farm and food systems resiliency in their local communities and regions. Akilah is currently working on the Zuri Wingi Heritage Harvest Project at Tuckaway Farm in Lee NH to bring crops and agricultural education from the African Diaspora and Indigenous Population to the region. She is also a member of Durham's Wagon Hill Farm & Garden where she was the Education and Community Outreach Coordinator, a Board Member, and a Food Pantry Volunteer. She earned degrees in Wildlife Management/Ecology and Education from the University of New Hampshire.
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Join us in the exhibit hall throughout the day to engage with local businesses and non-profits who all share a commitment to improving the health of our planet. You are sure to be inspired and motivated by the innovative and important work these organizations are doing.
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York River Stewardship Committee
League of Conservation Voters NH Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation Kittery Climate Action Now KCAN Piscataqua Seed Saving Project Surfrider NH Chapter Citizens' Climate Lobby York Ready for Climate Action Seacoast Permaculture MOFGA |
Surfrider NH Chapter
Citizens' Climate Lobby York Ready for Climate Action Foraculture Save Kittery Waters Sierra Club ME Maine Coast Heritage Trust Kittery Climate Adaptation Committee Dover Plastics Reduction Group NH Network for Environment |
This event is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors.
Thank you!
Thank you!
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