Blue Water Film Festival

Film Schedule

12:00pm

GO GO AROUND ITALY

In Gravina in Puglia, a typical town in southern Italy, cousins Cipo and Mia encounter a strange green being with three eyes who has fallen from the sky with his spaceship. His name is Zet, and he comes from a distant galaxy with a special mission: to discover the secret formula that has made Italy so rich in artistic and scenic beauty, making it unique in the world. Zet invites Cipo and Mia to board his Flying Cloud, and together they embark on an unforgettable adventure to discover the beautiful country.

Director: Francesco Colombo

STORIES FROM THE BLUE: SAVING KOHOLĀ

Saving Koholā is a short documentary that offers a rare and intimate look at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary team who monitors and disentangles humpback whales that migrate to these waters to mate and give birth. Entanglement in marine debris remains a major global threat to marine mammals, often leading to injury, starvation, or death. This film documents the high-stakes work of responding to these incidents, from tracking, approaching, and disentangling whales from dangerous debris.

Director: Nick Zachar

LIGHT IN THE DARK

The deep ocean begins where the sunlight ends. It is dark, cold, and inhospitable to humans, yet essential to all life on Earth. The Ocean is our planet’s life support system — regulating the climate, feeding millions, and supplying half of the oxygen that makes this planet habitable. Experience the wonder of a blue planet!

Director: Alex Ingle

SHIMMER

Cast away on a desolate beach, Ricardo toils tirelessly on a massive lighthouse that he believes holds the key to his rescue, neglecting his daughter whose own plans might derail her father’s dreams.

Director: Andrés Palma

MY OTTER DAY

In this beautifully shot and captivating documentary, wildlife filmmaker Sugandhi Gadadhar explores the playful and resilient lives of otters in one of India’s most rapidly changing waterways. Set in the lush wetlands and tranquil waters of the Cauvery river, the film reveals a rare view of Otter family life, their survival strategies, and interactions with other species. But as pollution and destructive dynamite fishing threatens the delicate balance of their habitat, the otters, and the humans whose livelihoods also depend on the river, are often in conflict. With unprecedented access and filmed over three years, Sugandhi follows a family of otters as they face these challenges.

Director: Sugandhi Gadadhar

2:15pm

TRASH (animated short film)

In a dark alley, a scrawny rat has no choice but to fight with a pigeon for a small slice of pizza. Without a second thought, they throw themselves in a vertiginous chase from the top to the bottom of the street.

Directors: Gregory Bouzid, Maxime Crançon, Robin Delaporte , Mattéo Durand, Romain Fleischer, Alexis Le Ral, Margaux Lutz, Fanny Vecchie

BLACK BUTTERFLIES (animated feature film)

Tanit, Valeria and Shaila are three women from very different parts of the world who face the same problem: climate change. They will lose everything because of global warming effects and they will be forced to emigrate to survive.

Directors: David Baute, Pepe Sanchez

4:00pm

SECRETS OF GREAT SALT LAKE

An uplifting story of how water connects all life on Earth.  Journey back to when mammoths, camels and saber-toothed cats roamed the ancient shores of Lake Bonneville and witness its transformation into Great Salt Lake, caused by one of the largest floods in history!  Be immersed in a rare ecosystem where unusual creatures thrive in waters five times saltier than the ocean. Yet, the source of the Lake is freshwater! It comes from high up in the snowpack of the Rockies where mountain lions raise their cubs, and Olympic skiers hone their skills on the greatest snow on Earth, flowing into rivers and streams past aspen trees that form the world’s largest living organism, and down to the basin below where grebes dance on water in a wildlife refuge that supports millions of birds, and onwards into the Lake and its islands, where herds of pronghorn and bison roam.

Director: Tyler Mifflin