Thunder Bay International Film Festival all weekend in Alpena

Courtesy Image “Protected Waters: Exploring La Jolla” by Jennifer Idol and Alex Rose will be showing at 10 a.m. on Saturday during the Thunder Bay International Film Festival at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena.
ALPENA – Immerse yourself in the best ocean and Great Lakes films on Earth at the Thunder Bay International Film Festival this weekend in Alpena.
The festival started in Rogers City on Wednesday, Thursday in Harrisville, and continues tonight at 6 p.m. with the Great Lakes Gala Reception and Films at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, 500 W. Fletcher St., Alpena.
Tonight’s films include “Hypnotise,” “Crossing Ontario, The End,” “The Storm Chaser,” “Black Godfather of SCUBA,” and “Patrick and the Whale.”
Attendees can stay after the films for a live discussion. There will be appetizers and a cash bar available. The program costs $30, or is included with the purchase of a Thunder Pass, which gets you into all the programs throughout the festival, which runs through Sunday. Purchase a Thunder Pass for $125 at thunderbayfriends.org.
The festival continues on Saturday, with two programs starting at 10 a.m. Program 4 will include “Bottle Cap,” “Seagrass for Sea Change,” “Protected Waters: Exploring La Jolla,” and “Collision.”
“Protected Waters: Exploring La Jolla” is produced by Jennifer Idol and Alex Rose. It takes viewers on a journey to several Marine Protected Areas in southern California off the coast of San Diego and Catalina Island.
Idol is an explorer, visual creative, and the first woman to dive all 50 states.
“Marine Protected Areas protect and preserve natural resources … and ecological systems while safeguarding habitats and species,” Idol said. “Much like National Parks on land, MPAs provide a refuge for nature in the ocean, and places for people to enjoy the natural beauty of these ecosystems.”
Rose is an explorer, underwater photographer, and science editor of Ocean Geographic magazine.
“This was a fun one that we’ve had in the works for a while,” Rose said of their latest film. “We’ve been plotting to go see the leopard sharks there for years.”
The duo has completed two prior “Protected Waters” films, one in Yellowstone National Park, and another in Laguna Madre, the largest hyper saline coastal lagoon in the world. There will be more to come.
“We’re pretty excited about this film,” Idol said of “Protected Waters: Exploring La Jolla,” which runs 15 minutes. “The shark relationship with the population there is really interesting, and they have a drone expert that helps connect people to understanding the relationship between the protected waters and the proximity to people.”
Idol will be at the film festival to chat with attendees about the film.
“They’re going to learn, first and foremost, about protected waters,” Idol said of those who watch the film. “Protected waters are habitat for an entire ecosystem that is home to these varieties of animals, and then we talk about the species within, particularly the sharks.”
“The sharks, I’d say, are kind of like our ecosystem ambassadors for this project,” Rose added. “Because they were, kind of, what drew us to southern California in the first place.”
She added that the sea lion population has been declining in that region and needs attention as well.
“It’s great to be able to interact with these animals as close as we can,” Rose said.
Rose and Idol hope their film inspires people to treasure the natural resources around them.
“It’s about inspiring people to appreciate their local water resources,” Rose said. “And, of course, we travel to go report on these places … Each one of these places is hopefully special to the people that live there, and maybe they don’t realize why. It sort of encourages people to look at the same places they’ve seen in, hopefully, a new way.”
To see more of Idol and Rose’s work, visit ProtectedWatersFilm.com.
Also on Saturday at 10 a.m., Program 5 will include “I Want Sun,” “The Shark with a Thousand Names,” “Truluck,” and “SAGRES.” Then at 1 p.m., Program 6 will feature “PLSTC,” “Restoring the Farallon Islands: A Critical Conservation Opportunity,” “When Hope Breaks Through,” and a live discussion. Also at 1 p.m., Program 7 will feature “WindShipped,” “The Impossible Wave,” “Changing Seas: Vanishing Whales,” “Lost in the Site of Salvation: The Shipwreck of the Atlanta,” and a live discussion. Those programs each cost $10, or are included with the purchase of a Thunder Pass.
Two free programs are also offered on Saturday — the TBIFF Student Film Competition and awards at 3 p.m., and a Filmmakers’ Panel at 4 p.m.
Then at 6 p.m. is the Sanctuary Selections film competition with The Sunset Project. The top five films will be shown, and there will be hors d’oeuvres, live discussions, and the final award presentation, all for $20 per person, or included with a Thunder Pass.
TBIFF continues on Sunday at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena. Two programs are available at 11 a.m. Program 11 features “Rise of the Clambassador,” “The Arctic Halocline,” “Ripple: Casting for Change,” “Tangled in the Tides,” and live discussion. Program 12 features “Blue Carbon” and “Deep Rising.” Programs showing at 1 p.m. include Program 13: “Deep Look: Barnacles Go to Unbelievable Lengths to Hook Up,” “Gender Outlaw, A Bodysurfing Story,” and “Big Wave Guardians,” and Program 14: “Huff,” “Washed Ashore,” and “Cold Refuge.” Then at 3 p.m., choose from Program 15: “The Gift of Bathsheba,” “Robots in the Deep,” and “Mediterranean: LIFE UNDER SIEGE,” or Program 16: “Inseparable: Ava,” “Havana Libre,” and “Molokai and the Frog.” All Sunday programs are $10, or included with the purchase of a Thunder Pass.