Public Lands Film Festival

The Public Lands Film Festival is an affordable and customizable, all-inclusive stewardship and engagement event package that celebrates storytelling from our public lands. 

America’s public lands are more than just forests, rivers, and mountains—they are special spaces where we find peace, adventure, and connection to something larger than ourselves. This collection of short films from independent filmmakers captures the breathtaking beauty, rich diversity, and enduring importance of America's public lands. These films inform, inspire, and remind us that when people come together around the places they love, extraordinary things happen.

 

How It Works

  • Explore the films listed below and make your selections. 
  • Once you've selected your films, use this form to pay for them.
    • Films cost $60 per film per showing for active PLA Nonprofit Members 
    • Films cost $120 per film per showing for nonprofit non-members. 
    • Films cost $250 per film per showing for for-profit organizations. If for-profit organizations partner with a nonprofit to host the festival, they can take advantage of the nonprofit pricing. 
  • A member of the PLA team will follow up with an agreement that details the date and location of your event. 
  • Once signed, PLA will send marketing materials, including templates for a press release and social media content. 
  • Within 10 business days of the signed agreement, PLA will send one video file that includes all selected films for easy screening. 
  • Plan, market, and host an amazing event! 
  • Complete the post-event survey.

First time hosting a film festival? Check out our Film Festival Best Practices. 

PLA recognizes that hosts may desire to show a film outside of the festival catalog. We are happy to accommodate this request. Please reach out to us for more information and next steps.

Dark theater with people watching a film

If you are a host organization with questions, or a filmmaker interested in adding your film to the catalog, email Ashley Waite, PLA's Membership Manager. 

      Purchase Your Films Here     

Available Films

Films are added to the catalog on a rolling basis. Check back regularly for new additions. 

Loon

Runtime: 9:51 | Themes: Conservation

Is wilderness more valuable than money? It depends on who you ask. Loon is a through-hiking naturalist who understands what's truly valuable in life. At 80 years old with more than 2,000 acres of wilderness to his name, he must decide what to do with this precious asset.

Save Flat Top

Runtime: 11:20 | Themes: Diversity & Identity, Activism, Community Park

At the epicenter of gentrification, the Lincoln Heights community is at risk of losing Flat Top — their last piece of sacred, open, undeveloped land.

 

Wood Hood

Runtime: 16:19 | Themes: Diversity & Identity, Youth Voices, Accessibility

DeVaughn is a 15-year-old kid from New York City who loves skateboarding and craves a "quiet place" to escape the chaos of his home, the city, and kids who steal from him. Wood Hood follows DeVaughn on a weekend-long group camping trip with Camping To Connect, a BIPOC-led mentorship program that teaches leadership, brotherhood, and inclusion in the outdoors.

Ferryman at the Wall

Runtime: 15:37 | Themes: Challenging Perspectives, Conservation, National Parks

Originally proposed as an international peace park with Mexico, Big Bend, Texas has a unique relationship with its southern neighbor. For the past 40 years, Mike Davidson has been ferrying tourists across the Rio Grande for a little taste of Mexican life — but now a great big border wall might divide the park.

 

Facing the Falls

Runtime: 34.33 | Themes: Accessibility, Adventure, National Parks

Deep in the throes of an aggressive, fatal muscle-wasting disease and no longer able to walk unassisted, Cara ventures out on a daring, 12-day expedition through the Grand Canyon. Facing the Falls is a story of fear, adrenaline, ambition, determination, hubris, courage, and perseverance against the odds.

Standing Above the Clouds

Runtime: 14:53 | Themes: Indigenous Perspectives, Activism, Conservation 

When a massive thirty-meter telescope is proposed to be built on Mauna Kea, an uprising of kiaʻi (protectors) in Hawaiʻi and around the world dedicate their lives to protecting the sacred mountain from further destruction.

 

Gauley Guide

Runtime: 8:47 | Themes: Adventure

The Upper Gauley River is legendary throughout the whitewater world. The path to becoming a Gauley guide is not quick or easy. It takes years of flips, swims, early mornings, late nights, swiftwater training, and guide ejections to get to where smooth lines through class V rapids are the norm. Gauley Guide follows Michael Anderson as he works to become an Upper Gauley guide.

Keeper of the Cascades

Runtime: 14:03 | Themes: Conservation, National Parks

A documentary about legacy and bold passion, Keeper of the Cascades, filmed in North Cascades National Park, highlights those who have made a career out of what they love. It follows the story of Bill Zimmer, Chief of Facilities, and Abbie Graf, Wilderness Ranger, on a three-day, two-night backpacking trip and highlights their passion as caretakers of our parks.

 

Canyon Chorus

Runtime: 16:32 | Themes: Diversity & Identity, Accessibility, BLM

Set against the backdrop of Desolation Canyon, UT, Mikah Meyer, a world-record traveler and LGBTQ+ advocate, and his friends reflect on the power of mentorship within the queer community and how nature provides the freedom to be oneself.

Tracing History

Runtime: 13:12 | Themes: Diversity & Identity, BLM

A Chinese American filmmaker invites her mother on a journey of self-discovery and reclamation as they tour the railroad sites built by their ancestors six generations ago.

 

A Guide to Fighting for Wild Rivers

Runtime: 9:56 | Themes: Conservation

A Guide to Fighting for Wild Rivers illustrates how OARS, American Rivers, and Friends of the Yampa have worked together for more than a decade to build a coalition of support for the last free-flowing river in the Colorado River Basin. 

Brave Girl

Runtime: 7:51 | Themes: Youth Voices, Adventure

Brave Girl is a strong young adventurer who, with the help of her grandpa, is beginning her journey of finding out what it takes to climb mountains. Even though she’s only 6, she has an unwavering ambition to climb the biggest mountains in the world, starting with the ones in her backyard in Wyoming. 

 

Patchwork Wild: Stitching the Last Strands

Runtime: 21:24 | Themes: Conservation, Wildlife

Three local trekkers traverse through southwest Florida's coastal wetlands on a multi-day journey that showcases the irreplaceable gaps in the Florida Wildlife Corridor and the vital role that working lands—like cattle ranches—play in connecting protected wilderness in one of the state's most rapidly developing regions. 

What the River Knows

Runtime: 34:19 | Themes: Conservation, Challenging Perspectives

A lost Eden drowned under Lake Powell re-emerges, revealing the follies of the past and a new way forward for the Colorado River.

 

Garden of the Glades: A Week at Conservation Ranger Camp

Runtime: 29:34 | Themes: Youth Voice, Diversity & Identity, Wildlife Refuges

Produced in partnership with the National Wildlife Refuge Association, this film follows a first-of-its-kind summer camp hosted by the USFWS. Twelve high school students embark on an adventure to test their limits and deepen their connection with nature.