…with a short celebration of RVOEP’s 20th birthday, the lively folk music of Steve Hahm and Sid Bishop, and an evening of films that will be enjoyed by adults and older children. Taking place at the Ukiah Civic Center, 300 Seminary Avenue, doors open at 6:15 with snacks, cake and music. Films will begin at 7 p.m.

Family-oriented films close out Wildlife Film Fest

The feature film, “Deep Ocean: Lights in the Abyss” (52 min.), follows the NHK (Japanese broadcasting) team on a deep-sea adventure. The destination is an illuminated “twilight zone” in a huge submarine canyon in Monterey Bay. Equipped with a 4K camera system designed specifically for deep-sea filming on state-of-the-art submarines, the crew encounters a world of countless exotic creatures including sparkling jellyfish and flash-emitting fish. This is the world’s first quest to film bioluminescent creatures in their natural environment in the deep fathoms of our oceans.

Three short films will also screen. “My Haggan Dream” (8 min.), set on the island of Saipan, portrays a young girl’s adventure to find sea turtles.

“Tagging Bumblebees” (6 min.) sets out to answer the questions: Are some habitats better for bumblebees than others? Does it depend on the number or type of flowers that are available, or some other factor? To answer these questions, a graduate student attached radio frequency identification tags to several bumblebees in a colony and then set up an array of detectors in their nest to record the bees’ comings and goings.

“Thinking Like a Scientist: Boundaries” (7 min.) explores human-constructed boundaries and how they affect other creatures. We meet a photographer who has spent the last seven years documenting the environmental effects of the U.S./Mexico border wall and a biologist who studies how man-made barriers influence the movement of wildlife.

Tickets are available at Mendocino Book Company or at the door for a $10 suggested donation for adults and $5 for children.

Proceeds from the film festival will benefit the Redwood Valley Outdoor Education Project. The RVOEP is a special program of the Ukiah Unified School District that provides outdoor environmental education programs to over 2,000 students each year on a 45-acre woodland in Redwood Valley.

For more information visit the RVOEP website at http://rvoep.org. For further inquiries contact Maureen Taylor, RVOEP Education Coordinator, at 707-489-0227.