Presented by
Martha’s Vineyard Film Society
in collaboration with
Vineyard Conservation Society
Presents
12th Annual Martha’s Vineyard Environmental Film Festival
May 21-24, 2026
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2026 FESTIVAL PROGRAM
Thursday, May 21
6:30pm
Opening Reception – Live Music and Libations.
7:30pm
THE SHEPHERD AND THE BEAR
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Set high in the majestic French Pyrenees, THE SHEPHERD AND THE BEAR explores a conflict provoked by the reintroduction of brown bears in the midst of a traditional shepherding community. The film follows an aging shepherd who struggles to find a successor as bears prey on his flock, and a teenage boy who becomes obsessed with tracking the bears. Through its breathtaking cinematography and immersive storytelling, THE SHEPHERD AND THE BEAR is a modern folktale about tradition, community and humanity’s relationship with a vanishing natural world.
Friday, May 22
4pm
THE MAN WHO SAVES THE WORLD?
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Resurrection, indigenous prophecies, and adventures around the globe — this is the story of Patrick McCollum. A spiritual leader and peace advocate, he finds himself at the very center of an ancient prophecy that could decide the fate of our planet. Pulled into McCollum’s world, acclaimed director Gabe Polsky will bring us across continents on a spiritual journey in which the absurd and profound merge.
“The Man Who Saves the World? makes for both fun and thoughtful viewing.” – The Hollywood Reporter
7:30pm
GHOST ELEPHANTS
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From director Werner Herzog
For over a decade, Dr. Steve Boyes, conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer, has been in search of a mysterious, elusive herd of Ghost Elephants in the highlands of Angola, deep within its forests. From acclaimed director Werner Herzog (“Grizzly Man”), GHOST ELEPHANTS follows Boyes on an epic journey as he sets out with some of the best master trackers in the world, in pursuit of an animal long believed to be a myth.
“This hypnotic and haunting documentary turns a search for mythical beasts into a profound meditation on memory, loss, and the vanishing wild.” – Screen Zealots
Saturday, May 23
1pm
TBD
4pm
YANUNI
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In Brazil’s Amazon, fearless Indigenous leader Juma Xipaia defends her land and people against forces threatening their survival. Her extraordinary courage and resilience is captured here—as mother, warrior, and a symbol of resistance for her people.
7:30pm
THE KEEPER
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Director Jon Bowermaster and Captain John Lipscomb will join us for a discussion after the film
Cantankerous, charismatic and passionately committed, this river keeper — John Lipscomb — reflects on his 25 years patrolling the Hudson River, traveling more than 80,000 miles, by wooden boat.
Like rivers around the world, the Hudson — America’s First River and the Birthplace of the American Environmental Movement — boomed as a growing human population used it for transportation, sustenance and for many years a dumping ground.
The river paid a price for all this use and abuse, struggling against its share of contamination. For the past nearly three decades the river’s poet laureate and literal “eyes on the river,” Captain John, has been at the forefront of each of those fights, taking on industrial and human pollution, suffering the losses and celebrating victories.
While he has had successes on the Hudson, committing a life to protecting a river is a never- ending fight. Today he is one of more than 300 “keepers” around the globe, looking out for their respective rivers.
Sunday, May 24
12pm
Vineyard Conservation Society Student Art Show and Reception
1pm
WILD NORTH SEA
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We follow experienced diver and cameraman Peter van Rodijnen, who has spent the past 20 years filming in oceans around the world. Inspired by the famous explorer Jacques Cousteau, Peter decides to capture the unknown underwater world of the North Sea. So close, yet so unknown: the North Sea, the largest nature reserve in the Netherlands!
As Peter embarks on his underwater journey, he quickly faces significant challenges. He faces dangerous and powerful currents, poor visibility in murky waters, and violent storms, but his determination to unravel the secrets of this untamed natural wonder never wavers. Initially, he thought he would primarily film large and iconic species like the basking shark, orca, and tuna in the North Sea. But he soon realized that these are only one part of a much larger and interconnected system, and that the health of the North Sea depends on all its inhabitants, from the smallest plankton to the largest shark.
With stunning and eye-catching images, Peter van Rodijnen reveals a spectacular underwater world, completely unknown to most of us. An unforgettable adventure for all ages!
4pm
THE LAST DIVE
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Terry Kennedy is a legend. A former associate of the Hell’s Angels, he sailed into the Sea of Cortez in the 1980s on a boat named Erotica. But while Terry’s friends have great memories of partying with him at sea, his legacy goes beyond mere popularity. His time on the water transformed Terry, who devoted his life to the conservation of manta rays after bonding with a giant manta he named “Willy Wow.” Over 19 years off the coast of San Benedicto Island, Terry and Willy Wow developed an extraordinary relationship that changed our understanding of mantas forever.
Now in his eighties, Terry goes on the adventure of a lifetime in The Last Dive, setting sail with his friends and a documentary crew in hopes of fulfilling his “dying wish” to swim with Willy Wow one more time. Director Cody Sheehy takes viewers along on their journey, using Terry’s story as a window into the developing science behind manta rays’ extraordinary intelligence, as well as the urgent need to protect these “gentle giants” and their stunning natural habitat.
7:30pm
TIME AND WATER
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A National Geographic film
Renowned Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason is chasing something elusive. As the glacial ice of his homeland melts, he constructs a cinematic time capsule to hold onto this moment and send it to the future, before everything he loves slips away. Using his own collected archives, his grandparents’ photographs, and films, as well as traditional songs and folktales, Andri interlaces his family’s story with that of the land around him. From Academy Award®-nominated director Sara Dosa, TIME AND WATER is a universal reflection on the power of home and what it means to be alive amid profound epochal change.
“It’s a pensive, reflective film which combines striking Super 16 archive material with a deft exploration of the way the narratives of our lives are intertwined with the lands we inhabit.” – Screen International
“Time and Water is a meditative elegy for a disappearing land that has forged the culture of Iceland for thousands of years.” – Film Threat
The Vineyard Conservation Society is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to preserving the environment, character, and quality of life of Martha’s Vineyard through advocacy, education, and the protection of the Island’s land and waters. VCS is the Island’s only conservation organization whose mission includes advocacy and public education, as well as resource protection. We believe that the future health of our Island and its waters will increasingly depend on an informed public. www.vineyardconservation.org
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