DECEMBER 1
Into the Okavango
4:00 PM
Short Film
RETURN FROM DESOLATION
12 mins | Directed by: Justin Clifton
Garrett Eaton just doesn’t fit into a box. Which makes him a great subject for a short film. Especially for a filmmaker like Justin Clifton, who has a natural empathy for everyday heroes like Garrett and who knows how to let people — and places — tell their stories through his lens. The result: In the space of mere minutes we get to not only meet a man worth knowing but to become fully vested in his rich story.
Feature Film
INTO THE OKAVANGO
90 mins | Directed by: Neil Gelinas
Botswana’s Okavango Delta, a 22,000 square- kilometer unending maze of wetlands surrounded by the Kalahari Desert, is one of the last untouched refuges for wildlife on the planet, showing visitors “what the world used to be without us,” says conservation biologist Steve Boyes. It cannot survive the loss of any freshwater arteries. Into the Okavango chronicles Boyes’ trip down the headwaters of Angola’s keystone Cuito River into the delta. Perhaps his team’s biggest discovery is that the peat bogs into which the Cuito seems to disappear hold enough water to supply the Delta with the 2.5 trillion gallons it needs annually. But even this secret reservoir can’t guarantee protection of the endangered Delta from human impacts.
Q&A with: Suzan Beraza, Mountainfilm Telluride Festival Director and Marissa Mattys Mountainfilm Lead Tour Presenter
