You're invited to this special screening at the Library, featuring a two-hour program of short, inspiring environmental films featured as part of the 2025 Wild and Scenic Film Festival and selected specifically for our Coachella Valley audience.

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is the largest film festival of its kind, showcasing the best and brightest in environmental and adventure films. Festival viewers can expect to see award-winning environmentally inspired short films and learn more about conservation. 

Featured Films

Timber Rattlesnakes of Catoctin Mountain Park  • William H. Martin has spent over 60 years hiking the Appalachian Mountains to research and conserve timber rattlesnake populations. Join him on a hike as he searches for these venomous snakes to showcase their beauty, docile attitude, and vital importance to a healthy and balanced ecosystem (6 minutes).

Vanishing Oasis • The Great Salt Lake provides for 10 million migratory birds every year, but starving birds will line its shores if the lake continues to shrink, and toxic dust storms will cloud Salt Lake City’s skies. Can Utahns prioritize public and environmental health over short-term economic gain? (11 minutes).

WILD HOPE: The Great Ocean Cleanup • Inventor Boyan Slat is on a mission to rid oceans of plastic. His team at The Ocean Cleanup designs and deploys systems that pull trash from the open ocean — now, he’s stopping the pollution at its source: rivers where plastic is easier to catch, like those in Kingston Harbor (15 minutes).

The Bear Coast • This short, informative documentary centers multi-focal storytelling with a local, diverse cast of characters to provide a nuanced account of contentious environmental issues that have real, lived impacts for Alaska Peninsula residents and bear populations alike (17 minutes).

Birds on the Brink • Humans have introduced new species of plants and animals since they first arrived on the Hawai’ian islands, and these invaders have devastated many local species, including an incredible radiation of birds known as the honeycreepers. Now, counter-measures to mitigate the threats of predators and another invasive species — a mosquito that carries avian malaria — are helping to protect these amazing, endangered birds (10 minutes).

The Tundra • Canadians who grew up between the city and backcountry, influenced by what we love – downtowns, outdoor hockey, polar bears, the cabin, hip hop, skate culture, and outside misadventures. But, their creative inspiration always connects back to a simple source: the wild (3 minutes).

Jaguar Passage • Jaguar populations are in decline worldwide, but the Central American country of Belize remains a big cat stronghold. Yet, the only remaining link between its protected habitats, a six-mile corridor of forest, is at risk of being severed, and conservationists are in a race against time to preserve it (13 minutes).

Café Y Aves • Coffee farms in Colombia exist in some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. However, agriculture is putting pressure on biodiversity, causing catastrophic declines in migratory bird species. Farmers are working alongside Smithsonian scientists to develop solutions that will be better for birds and coffee (14 minutes).

The Serpent's Lair • In the face of extreme habitat loss, biologist Dr. Chris Jenkins puts an ambitious plan in motion to save two American reptiles, the eastern indigo snake and the gopher tortoise (12 minutes).

Wingspan • Over the past six years, wildlife and conservation photographer Joshua Asel has climbed the peaks of Pinnacles National Park countless times to document the critically endangered California condor population that calls this stunning mountain range home. Wingspan follows Joshua on one of his expeditions and explores the vital role photography plays in creating awe and awareness for these incredible animals (10 minutes).

This program is presented in partnership with the New Desert Wildlife Center