Festival Year: 2026
Joel Reynolds
Roles: Special Guest
Since 1980, Joel Reynolds has specialized in environmental litigation and advocacy at all levels of the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He has led several of NRDC’s largest campaigns, including to protect the gray whale birthing lagoon and World Heritage Site at Laguna San Ignacio in Baja California, to reduce ocean noise pollution, to stop the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and, most recently, to defend the Gulf of California from development for LNG production and transport. He has twice been selected California Attorney of the Year (Environment), and in 2012 he was appointed NRDC’s Western Director. Reynolds was profiled in the New York Times best seller, “War of the Whales” (Simon & Schuster 2014), and he won an Emmy for Outstanding Nature Documentary in 2017 (“Sonic Sea”). He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1978.
Festival Year: 2026