Lake to star in March 20 film festival coming to Port

A mini-film festival centered around Lake Michigan, complete with a visit from two filmmakers, will be held in Port Washington by the Friends of Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, March 20.

Two short documentaries and the acclaimed film “All Too Clear” will be shown at the Port Washington-Saukville Performing Arts Center, and after filmmakers Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick will address the crowd.

It’s an event inspired by a film festival started in Alpina, Mich., about 14 years ago, when the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary was looking for a wintertime event to bring attention to the sanctuary and provide a community event, Port Washington resident Bill Moren, a director of the Friends of Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, said.

Last year, Moren said, the Shipwreck Coast Sanctuary held a film festival in Manitowoc that was well received, and another is planned there in April.

“I thought it made sense to bring it to the southern part of the sanctuary,” Moren, who is also a member of the Shipwreck Coast Sanctuary Board Advisory Council, said, noting the sanctuary stretches from Two Rivers to Port.

“This is a mini-film festival with the screening of an important film and a couple of supporting documentaries,” Moren said.

The Port festival will feature a screening of “All Too Clear,” an hour-long film by Drebert and Melnick that is described as part scientific exploration, part natural history adventure.

The couple used cutting-edge underwater drones to explore how quadrillions of tiny invasive quaggamussels are re-engineering the ecosystem of the Great Lakes at a scale not seen since the glaciers.

Drebert and Melnick spent more than 150 days filming underwater, making it the most ambitious underwater film ever made about the Great Lakes.

The couple, who hail from Canada, spent decades creating films that explore Canadian wildlife and history but, driven by a concern for the decline of freshwater ecosystems, shifted their lens to the underwater world.

Following the film, the couple will give a 30-minute talk and then answer questions from the audience.

Doors to the Performing Arts Center open at 6 p.m., with a 30-minute reception with hot cocoa and a specialty lemonade provided by Hollander Chocolate.

Moren said he hopes there will be more festivals in the future.

“I’m hoping we can pull this off and have enough of a crowd that we can expand it next year,” he said.

Moren said he hopes people will sign up in advance at https://shipwreckcoastfriends.org/events/.

The Performing Arts Center is at 427 W. Jackson St., Port Washington.

The event is hosted in collaboration with the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, International Ocean Film Festival and National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.