Albatross & The Refuge

Join us for a film festival benefit for the 25th anniversary of the Sierra Club Maine chapter at 7pm on Friday August 10th and 1pm and 7pm on Sunday August 12th. All proceeds go to benefit Sierra Club Maine

On Sunday afternoon, join us for the film Albatross preceded by the short The Refuge.

Albatross dir. Chris Jordan, 97 min

Acclaimed visual artist Chris Jordan traveled to Midway Island in 2009 to photograph the albatrosses that populate this small spot of land in the middle of the Pacific. Little did Jordan know that he would return time and again to Midway on a wildly challenging eight-year odyssey to tell the story of these remarkable birds and what they mean to him. This is not your textbook nature documentary, but rather a revelatory and existential examination of life, loss and love. Exquisitely beautiful, immensely touching and ultimately inspiring, Albatross takes us on a journey to this remote island that few people ever see. What we glean is a profound understanding of how our everyday material lives intersect with the natural world, even when it seems far away.

The Refuge, dir. Alex Jablonski, Kahlil Hudson, 16 min

The Gwich’in people of Alaska and northern Canada have depended on the Porcupine caribou herd for millennia. But their connection to the caribou goes far deeper than traditional subsistence hunting: the Gwich’in believe that they are guardians of the herd, and that the fates of the people and the caribou are forever entwined. For the last 30 years, the Gwich’in have been fighting proposed oil extraction projects in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—to them, its pristine coastal plain where the caribou calve their young is “the Sacred Place Where Life Begins.” The Refuge tells the story of two Gwich’in women who are continuing the decades-long battle for their people’s survival—and the survival of the wild animals that so faithfully bring them life.

Founded in 1892, the Sierra Club is the oldest and largest environmental advocacy organization in North America. Their mission is to explore, enjoy and protect the planet. The Maine Chapter, celebrating their 25th year in 2018, is a volunteer-run grassroots organization, working to:

• Protect Maine’s wilderness heritage
• Fight global warming & promote smart growth
• Safeguard Maine’s clean water and coastline
• Promote clean air and energy efficiency
• Hold public officials accountable
• Support pro-environment candidates for public office