BLUE Ocean Festival
I just returned home from the first annual BLUE Ocean Film Festival, which was held in beautiful Savannah, Georgia. If you’ve never been to the Georgia coast, it’s something out of a dream.
Spanish Moss on Ossabaw Island
The forests are dripping with Spanish moss, almost as if the trees have all sprouted a thousand long, grey beards. The salt mashes and beaches are literally overflowing with life and constantly dancing with the ever-changing tides. I saw things with scales, things with claws, things with fins, things with enormous wings, and things with long, pointed teeth. Oh what a playground for a photographer or wildlife filmmaker! And funny enough, none of the locals seemed to be paying attention to how amazing the world was right in their own backyards.
Isn’t that almost always the case? People are always dreaming about someplace new or exotic and they completely take for granted how truly unique their own surroundings are. I was thinking about this at the film festival when a man asked me about my favorite place to travel while filming The Riddle in a Bottle. It would have been easy to pick Hawaii because of the stunning spectacle of life on the reefs. Or I could have easily picked Florida where I had the chance to watch the miracle that is a sea turtle’s life. But I told him that my favorite place was the tiny, duckweed-covered pond near my backyard where I filmed muskrats and frogs. I often sat silently, dressed in camouflage by that pond and heard the passing people make comments like “gross” and “disgusting.” But those people had never really looked at a pond. They only saw a slimy, green stagnant pool of water. But they never stopped to notice the orchestra of life that plays out every year in that pond. And it really is an orchestra, with the harmonies of calling frogs and birds and insects and many other creatures whose lives depend on that pond. What an amazing place right in my own backyard!
Dragonly on Ossabaw Island
So now I’m home from my little Savannah adventure, and I hope I can keep that message in mind. I hope that I won’t forget to open my eyes and really look at the wonderful world around me.
By the way, The Riddle in a Bottle took home Best Children’s Program at the BLUE Ocean Film Festival!
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