Sam Sheline: Dispatches from the Festival Circuit

Sam Sheline’s short film Harbinger about the extinction of Panama’s national animal, the golden frog, premiered at DCEFF 2016.

“Things have been busy since the 2016 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital! I’m finishing up the final year of my Masters of Fine Arts degree at American University by making a film about water conservation on the Shenandoah River, and working on my thesis film. The thesis will be an extension of film Harbinger, which recently screened at the American Conservation Film Festival in Shepherdstown, WV. It’s my second year screening at ACFF and attending their conservation filmmaker workshop. 

Another short film of Sheline’s, Add One Back, which showed at DCEFF 2015, was selected this year for SXSW Eco—the environmental spin-off of the Austin, TX arts festival. [EXPLORE ALL THE DCEFF FILMS AVAILABLE TO WATCH ONLINE.]

Add One Back is my 16-min short about deciding to incorporate aquaculture oysters into an otherwise vegetarian diet. The highlight of the screening was certainly the discussion afterwards—people were fascinated to learn more about the science behind aquaculture and how it’s changing the Chesapeake Bay’s traditional oyster industry.

When Mickey Came to Town had its world premiere at DCEFF 2016. The film screened just a couple weeks ago at the Alexandria Film Festival.

Since DCEFF 2016, When Mickey Came to Town, about the people who fought Disney’s proposed American history theme park near Manassas, VA has screened at the James River Short Film Festival in Richmond and the headquarters of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In Alexandria, the film’s main character even joined us for the Q&A, where we discussed the story behind the film and the legacy of land protection for over 30 minutes! Such engaging conversations remind me of why we made the film in the first place.”

— via Sam Sheline