Editor

The Annapolis Film Festival’s Environmental Showcase, scheduled for Saturday, March 28 at  10:00 am at Maryland Hall, spotlights America’s coasts, where life on the edge of the rising sea has placed our towns and cities on the front lines of climate change. The Showcase, sponsored by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, will feature a panel comprised of leading environmental and scientific experts who will address the critical issues of climate change and shoreline erosion following the showing of the thought-provoking Shored Up. The panel will be moderated by the Alliance’s Executive Director, Al Todd.  

Shored Up, directed by Ben Kalina, takes viewers to the heart of the climate change controversy where politics, economics and science collide amid human efforts to literally beat back the sea along the East Coast. The film explores tough questions about coastal communities and their relationship to the land. What will a rising sea do to homes, businesses, and the survival of coastal communities? Can we afford to pile enough sand on our shores to keep the ocean at bay? In Long Beach Island, New Jersey and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, surfers, politicians, scientists and residents are racing to answer these questions.

Preceding Shored Up is the nine minute short, Isle de Jean Charles, directed by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee. Two remaining residents of a tiny island deep in the bayous of Southern Louisiana face a future where rising seas, coastal erosion and storms threaten to wash their homes away.

Environmental Showcase Panelists include: 

Peyton Robertson, Director, Chesapeake Bay Program Office, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA);

Dr. William Sweet, Oceanographer, National Ocean Service;

Matt Fleming, Director, Maryland DNR, Chesapeake and Coastal Service (invited);

Frank Biba, Chief of Environmental Programs, City of Annapolis, Maryland; and

Karla Raettig, Director, Maryland League of Conservation Voters. 

Following the film screening and panel in the Gym at Maryland Hall for the Performing Arts, the conversation will continue over lunch at the John Barry Pub, O'Callaghan's Hotel on West Street with guests receiving an AFF lunch discount. Lunch reservations are required.

Annapolis Film Festival tickets can now be purchased on the website at www.annapolisfilmfestival.com. Adult tickets are $12; senior and student tickets are $8. The four-day Festival Passes are $105. Four-day student passes are $40.  All four-day passes includes the Opening Night film, the After Party and unlimited films and panel discussions. One-day festival passes are available for $40. http://www.annapolisfilmfestival.com./There are a limited number of passes available, once sold out, they are gone.

See www.annapolisfilmfestival.com for times and locations of all events.  Up-to-the-minute changes and schedule can be followed on the AFF Facebook Fanpage and Twitter.   For more information subscribe to our weekly e-blast by clicking on the Hear It First tab on the website bannerhead.