This year welcomes the fourth annual Wild and Working Lands Film Festival, presented by the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. The Festival will take place on Thursday, March 27, and will be free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and films begin at 7 at the Gryphon Theatre in the Laramie Plains Civic Center. The films will also be available online in the weeks following the festival. Several short films set in the Rocky Mountain West region will be featured, with many films highlighting the Wyoming setting, and others set in Nevada, Montana, and Colorado.
The festival invited submissions from across the globe and worked to select films that feature the Mountain West region, and that provide the community with an opportunity to consume stories that help to facilitate a greater understanding of the relationships between people and their natural environment.
“I think my favorite part is just being able to showcase some of these films and stories with our community,” said Anastasia Brady, Special Events Coordinator at the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.
“Our audience may not have typically had the chance to view them otherwise, and I also like that it gives people an opportunity to kind of contemplate some of these issues,” Brady said.
The film festival was created four years ago by the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources and reflects the Haub School’s mission through its work to promote a greater understanding of the connections between humans and their natural landscape. It gives its stories a public space to creatively illuminate important stories and experiences.
“It’s an opportunity for us to share these stories that might not otherwise have a platform with our community and with our audience members,” Brady said. “It gets people to think critically about some of these environmental issues that we’re facing today.”
The festival values diversity, justice, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, sound information, and real-world solutions, as stated by its website. It welcomed film submissions focused on the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and high desert sagebrush steppe, alongside stories set in other areas of the world that can inform the Western American experience. This year, however, a greater emphasis has been placed on stories set in the Rocky Mountain region.
All film submissions will be considered for awards, including the Grand Prize, the People’s Choice, Best Film by an Indigenous Director or Showcasing an Indigenous Worldview, and Best Film about Wyoming.
Students are encouraged to join the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources to celebrate the enlightening work of filmmakers who have created an opportunity for deeper connection and understanding of the human relationship with the natural world.
