The 33rd annual DC Environmental Film Festival did not disappoint. Taking place across several venues, like The Burke Theatre at the United States Navy Memorial, the Embassy of Canada and many more, the festival showcased not only a variety of films, but a series of beautiful landmarks in D.C.
Both feature and short films were shown this year, for a total of 62 film screenings. All of these films aligned with the theme of environment, but fell into different subcategories: climate, sustainability, wildlife, conservation and more. The featured films came from all over the globe — from Austria to Japan.
One personal favorite was “The Cats of Gokogu Shrine,” directed by Kazuhiro Sôda and featured at the National Museum of Asian Art.
The film showcased cats stealing fish from local fishermen and bathing in the sunlit greenery of a shrine. It also handled a deeper issue of a tight-knit community juggling these cats, an invasive species, alongside the preservation of their spirituality and traditions.
On March 28, the Reservoir Center for Water Solutions showcased three short films for the festival: “The Little Brown Bird” and “Protecting Local Waterways,” — a collection of two short films.
“The Little Brown Bird,” directed by KT Bryden, is about the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, one of many birds at risk of extinction in the U.S. The film follows biologist Fabiola Baeza-Tarin and a team dedicated to protecting the sparrows and their habitat in the Everglades.
“Protecting Local Waterways” was focused on environmental issues surrounding D.C.’s Potomac and Anacostia rivers.
The first short, “Potomac Protector,” was put together by American University students. Directed by Madison Minges, the documentary follows Dean Naujoks, who advocates for protecting the Potomac through clean water legislation, holding big corporations accountable and cultivating D.C. communities around his cause.
The second short, “Reviving the Forgotten River,” produced by Charles Connell, Lily Huffman, Elizabeth Green and Torie Smith, is about D.C.’s “forgotten river.” The short is about the history of pollution in the Anacostia River, but also chronicles recent progress in cleaning it up.
Another featured film was “Bring Them Home,” directed by Ivan MacDonald, Ivy MacDonald and Daniel Glick. This film was shown at the National Museum of the American Indian.
The film followed members of the Blackfoot Confederacy in their mission to return wild buffalo to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. It was a beautiful showcase of conserving Indigenous culture.
The three films that won awards this year were “Keeper,” “A Life Among Elephants” and “Out of Plain Sight.”
“Keeper,” the 2025 Eric Moe Award winner for Best Short on Sustainability, was directed by Hannah Rafkin and chronicles Flynn’s journey. A single father and beekeeper in the Bronx, Flynn is diagnosed with cancer. What follows is a heart-wrenching story of passing his hives on to his daughter, Alaura, cultivating not only the bees but also his relationship with her.
“A Life Among Elephants” won the 2025 Flo Stone & Roger D. Stone Award for Outstanding Artistry in Filmmaking. Directed by Nigel Pope, the film is about field-based African elephant research headed by Iain Douglas-Hamilton and his time working for the conservation of the species against the ivory trade of the ‘70s. The film contains newly discovered footage and interviews, weaving together an emotional story of a researcher turned advocate for elephants.
Last, there was “Out of Plain Sight,” directed by Daniel Straub and Rosanna Xia. Winner of the 2025 Shared Earth Foundation Award for Advocacy, the film served as a sobering reality check of the environmental pollution taking place off the coast of Southern California with “as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste” being dumped into the ocean since the ‘40s, according to the film.
There is information to find the next showcasing of these films, as well as other films from the festival, on the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital’s website. Further, it is important to note that these venues and film showings are made possible by donations, also available via their website.
This article was edited by Conor Gillingham, Marina Zaczkiewicz and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Olivia Citarella, Sabine Kanter-Huchting, Ariana Kavoossi and Emma Brown.
