Gray's Reef Film Festival
With the incoming of the New Year, so comes our New Year’s Resolutions; our promises to ourselves to expand, grow, and improve. Often times we take on these big lists of flaws and places we want to improve, that we can never commit to. By the time February rolls around we throw in the towel and vow to try again next year. It’s okay, it happens, but this year, why not try to take on only a few changes at a time? Take some time to de-clutter your house, cut down of waste, recycle your cardboard. The best way to get involved is to do exactly that: get involved. This way, by the time February inevitably comes around you won’t feel so down on yourself, and you’ll be helping out the environment, too. Not to mention, you’ll be all ready for when the Festival comes to town!
The Trustees Theater in Downtown Savannah and the Tybee Post Theater out on Tybee Island are getting ready to host movies for the 15th Annual Gray’s Reef Film Festival. Taking place in multiple locations, mark your calendars for February 9-11. To see the winners of the student film competition, created with intent to inspire and educate the community about the magic of our oceans. The Gray’s Reef is one of the largest reefs in the Southeast so this is super close to home for us.
Every bit of existence depends on the ocean. All animals, people, every bit of life requires a healthy, thriving ocean. If 70% of our world is made up of the water, how can we treat it like anything other than as vital as our own organs?
The Last Stand of the Seahorse
One of the featured films this year is The Last Stand of the Seahorse, a short film by director and videographer, Will Foster-Grundy. This film highlights all the wonders of a seahorse. For example, seahorses consume over 3,000 pieces of food a day, as they have virtually no stomach.
Blue Serengeti
Blue Serengeti features a large female white shark off of the waters of Ano Nuevo Island, near the coast of California. Take a look at one of the “sharkiest” places on earth.
Maug's Caldera: A Natural Laboratory
A quiet paradise on the Northern tip of the Mariana Islands is Maug’s Caldera. Shallow hydrothermal vents that are commonly found close to coral reefs. Volcanic craters exist deep in these hidden places of the Pacific Ocean. All available in Maug’s Caldera: A Natural Laboratory.
These films set out to mystify, and capture. We should be entranced by the beauty of what lives down in the deep blue sea. These shots alone are convincing enough that you should make this film festival on the top of your list of things to do in 2017.
The Gray’s Reef Film Festival is co-hosted by the Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. This foundation supports the work of the sanctuary staff. To kick off the festival, the foundation is hosting a VIP party on February 8th at Jelinek Creative Spaces. Adult, and younger beverages alike, and light snacks to nosh on. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit graysreefnmsf.org.
