5th Annual FH Film Festival

This year is the 5th Anniversary of the Friday Harbor Film Festival! We are delighted to have become an important regional documentary film festival and a continuing favorite of the filmmakers themselves!

For 2017 we have 4 returning filmmakers with new films. We also will be featuring 2 films we have supported throughout their production: Crazy Wise, about mental illness and Headhunt Revisited, a remarkable story about an extraordinary woman explorer. We are thrilled this year as well to finally feature Loving Vincent, a story of Van Gogh, illustrated completed by his own painting style. We will screen up to 40 films, throughout the 3 days of the film festival in 5 venues.

This year’s coveted Andrew V. McLaglen Lifetime Achievement Award is being presented posthumously to Elouise Cobell, a Blackfeet Tribal community leader and an advocate for Native American self-determination and financial independence. The choice of Cobell as the award recipient reflects the broader mission of the Friday Harbor Film Festival — an event intended to shine light on stories and people who make a difference in our world. Cobell’s compelling story is told in the film 100 Years: One Woman’s Fight for Justice, which is being screened at the opening night Gala during this year’s Festival. Melinda Jenko, the filmmaker will be accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of Cobell.

Our Local hero this year is: Thirteen-year-old Dylan D’Haeze, a resident of Orcas Island. He reminds us that being a local hero does not have an age restriction. If you care about the planet and everything that lives within it, and have the courage to share this message with the world, powerful things can happen.

What began as a seemingly simple quest — to know more about plastic and its impact on the environment — has thrust this young and thoughtful first-time filmmaker into a leadership role. Dylan continues to ask poignant and important questions, but he is now going far beyond satisfying his own curiosity to actively encouraging others to take action.

Dylan’s documentary, Plastic is Forever, will be featured at this year’s Friday Harbor Film Festival. It contains a powerful message about the necessity of reducing our dependence on plastic. Since the film was released, Dylan has been sharing his message across the country at various film festivals, schools and environmentally-based community events. The film has already received multiple awards.

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