Far North Conservation Film Festival program cover. Photographer - Nicole Gustine

The 3 Fairbanks national wildlife refuges--Arctic, Kanuti, and Yukon Flats--joined with the National Park Service, Alaska Public Lands Information Center (APLIC), Fairbanks Arts Association, Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation, University of Alaska Student Activities’ Office, and the student chapter of The Wildlife Society to host the 4th annual “Far North Conservation Film Festival” on November 4, 2007.   The film festival is a cornerstone of the Fairbanks’s refuges National Wildlife Refuge Week activities.

Attendees enjoyed 12 outstanding films about conservation and sustainability of wildlife, wild places and cultures around the world. Documentaries covered topics from endangered leatherback turtles to pollution of the 2,300-mile Yukon River and sand painting by Tibetan monks to raising chickens in San Francisco. The feature film was a new hour-long documentary “Gates of the Arctic” about the wildest national park at the heart of Alaska’s Brooks Range. Producer Rory Banyard discussed the role of documentary films in conservation and took questions from the audience. The Conservation Film Festival will continue to educate people though additional screenings in Tok and Seward in the coming months.