Screenings and other events for the Blue Water Film Festival are returning to locations across San Diego County next week, and several will be in La Jolla — a place that Greg Reitman, the festival’s founder and director, considers its “North Star.”
The Blue Water Film Festival showcases prominent ecological filmmakers from around the world and serves as “an inroad to sustainability, environmental stewardship and conservation,” according to Reitman.
Its presenter, the Blue Water Institute, aims to promote San Diego as a hub for marine science and environmental storytelling.
A private dinner in Encinitas will kick off the sixth annual festival on Wednesday, March 19, and just over 30 films will be screened between Thursday, March 20, and Saturday, March 22.
The week will culminate with the Blue Water Awards on Sunday, March 23, at downtown San Diego’s UCSD Park & Market.
Screening venues will include the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center’s Garfield Theatre in La Jolla, plus the University of San Diego’s Warren Auditorium and the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park.
Filmmakers are gunning for awards in five categories — features, shorts, animation, Latin American and Indigenous. The latter is a new addition that Reitman said he is particularly enthusiastic about.
“Indigenous wisdom is really important,” Reitman said. We know water is the circulatory system of life — we all need it, we can’t live without it. And I think there’s a lot for us to gain from Indigenous wisdom and the content that comes [from it].”
Reitman said it’s harder than ever for films to get into the festival as it aims to highlight only the best work.
“Traditionally over the years, we’ve taken about 50 films. This year, we’re only taking 30 films,” Reitman said. “So we’re really minimizing and maximizing our content, and the inroad for getting into the film festival is very, very competitive.”
Featured films this year include Jeff Gardner’s “Let Them Be Naked,” which Reitman called a “game-changing film that everyone needs to see,” and “Territorio Puloui” (“The Territory of Puloui”), which he described as a “compelling and important” story from “prolific” filmmaker Carmela Daza.
In addition to its film screenings, the Blue Water festival will include a variety of social gatherings, educational forums and private events. Among them is a book g for “San Diego Through the Lens of Aaron Chang” on March 22 at Mangelsen Images of Nature Gallery in La Jolla. General ission tickets are $50.
Chang’s book, released in 2020 and currently on its sixth edition, features two decades’ worth of photos from across San Diego, including several locations in La Jolla.
“We always try to find an artist or book we feel profiles the message of Blue Water, and it was really nice to meet Aaron, to see his collection of photos … and be able to share it at the Mangelsen,” Reitman said.
Additional public festival events in La Jolla are:
• Ocean by the Sea Shabbat Dinner and film screenings: beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, March 21, at the JCC Garfield Theatre, 4126 Executive Drive. Dinner followed by three films — the feature-length documentary “San Diego: America’s Wildest City” and a pair of short documentaries, “Wild City” and “Surfers & Sea Lions” of the series “Ripple Effect.” Tickets are $36-$90.
• Film screening: 6 p.m. March 21, La Jolla High School, 715 Nautilus St. Screening of “Unearth,” a feature-length documentary about native Alaskan activists and commercial salmon fishermen as they confront plans for a copper mine. ission is free.
For the full festival schedule and to purchase tickets, visit bluewaterfilmfestival.org. ♦
