A 7-year old girl and her dogs invite kids to volunteer in their local communities to help keep the earth healthy and green.

NOR CAL PREMIERE What is a Watershed? The answer is explored through interviews with concerned citizens working to protect and preserve the Ventura River watershed.

WORLD PREMIERE In May 2009, a small team of rock climbers departed for Namibia with two goals: to find a way up an unexplored face, and to find a way into a deeper understanding of southern Africa. At the heart of their trip lies the question, can adventure and culture combine to create understanding?

A touching story of a young man and his elderly father and their story coming full circle.

WORLD PREMIERE It’s been 150 years since Charles Darwin published his ground-breaking “Origin of the Species.” Today, although 97 percent of the Galapagos Islands are off limits, the human footprint is taking a heavy toll. The newly elected president of Ecuador has declared the Galapagos “a disaster zone.”

A grassroots agricultural movement has evolved into a booming international market. The film provides insight for certification systems taking root across our society—from green building to fair trade—showing the pitfalls that can arise when idealism is formalized into a label.

Al Gore meets Stephen Colbert. This humorous visual monologue starring ecological economist Dave Batker explores whether or not the American economy provides a high quality of life, social justice and long-run sustainability. Campy and informative, a mix of facts and jokes, it will make you think about our economy in a different way.

NOR CAL PREMIERE Have you ever wondered why we don’t ride zebras? Or why we aren’t drinking moose milk or eating hippo hamburgers? Follow a young zebra as he discovers what keeps him from becoming a domesticated animal.

Iguana becomes aggravated by what he considers to be a stupid story, so he plugs his ears with two sticks. Unfortunately, this sets forth of a chain reaction of misunderstanding in the jungle.

Surf like a girl! From the California coastline to Hawaii and Mexico, this is a sincere tribute to the female pioneers of surfing. Featuring 10 women, ages 17 to 64, the perspective is pure girl, with some comments from the guys for good measure.

Each season in the Anza Borrego desert has its special creatures: tiny hummingbirds, darting lizards, slithering snakes, head-butting bighorns. Their land is seared by ground temperatures of 180 degrees, swept by a flash flood, even blanketed by a snowstorm. Both filmmakers have received numerous regional and national Emmy Awards.

The Yes Men are two guys who just can’t take “no” for an answer. They have an unusual hobby: posing as top executives of corporations they hate. Armed with nothing but thrift-store suits, the Yes Men lie their way into business conferences and parody their corporate targets in ever more extreme ways - basically doing everything that they can to wake up their audiences to the danger of letting greed run our world. (E, US, 2009, 87min)

In 2009, Wild & Scenic joined forces with Synergia Learning Ventures to launch the Young Filmmaker’s Documentary Project. The young filmmaker’s shot footage at the festival and created, on-site, a short film that showed on the final day. Throughout the rest of the year, students met to complete the film. The result is a moving portrayal of young filmmakers, eager to make a difference, and their engaging encounters with veteran activists and filmmakers.

“If you adults won’t do something on climate change, then we kids are going to take the reins,” says young activist Shannon McComb. These kids speak directly about their concerns, knowledge, and their actions to combat climate change.