Great Lakes and Great Films: 9th Annual Thunder Bay International Film Festival

Professional and student films include themes of conservation, advocacy, and sustainability, and are often designed to make a lasting impact on viewers. Stephanie Gandulla, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary’s Film Festival Coordinator and Maritime Archaeologist, says that the festival is a great way to bring the community together, generate awareness, and inspire individual and collective action on important issues.

“I have personally witnessed people watching a film and then say, ‘I didn’t realize what I do here in Alpena could have a positive effect on the life of a marine mammal in the Gulf of Mexico,’” says Gandulla. “They’re inspired to take specific actions, like foregoing single-use plastics and choosing sustainable seafood.”

Even the mayor of Alpena, Michigan, Matt Waligora, has been called to action, inspired by films from past Thunder Bay International Film Festivals. Waligora has supported the festival since its inception, and says that it has been impactful for the community in a plethora of ways. Waligora believes that awareness about issues in sustainability generated by the festival have played a role in the foundation of youth groups like Plastics For the Love of Alpena Today (FLOAT) 4-H Club in Alpena.

Plastics FLOAT aims to bring attention to single-use plastics, and invited Waligora to join their efforts to eliminate the use of plastic grocery bags in the city four years ago. Since then, Waligora has been working with the group, local grocery store owners, and the Michigan legislature to overcome the challenges of instituting a ban on plastic bags.

The topics covered by films in the festival have also made a lasting impression on the mayor. He’s seen a number of films at the festival over the years, but the one that stands out most vividly in his memory discussed the issue of microplastics – miniscule bits of plastic debris that come from many sources – including larger plastic debris that breaks down into smaller pieces. These tiny bits of plastic often end up in Great Lakes and ocean waters, which Mayor Waligora was not aware of until learning about the issue at the film festival. “Microplastics are something that we just don’t see everyday in our lives, and we don’t think about the fact that we contribute to that problem one way or another . . . that had a big impact on me,” Waligora says.

The mayor adds that Alpena is “a completely different community than we were before Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary [was established in 2000],” and that the sanctuary and the film festival have really put Alpena on the map. “It’s definitely made a huge difference in everything that goes on here, in terms of the economy, bringing in visitors, and being exposed to the world . . . and the film festival is a big part of that.”

Waligora also enjoys seeing what local filmmakers produce, and the festival has inspired a great deal of local and regional filmmaking. One such local filmmaker is Jason Whalen, a professional filmmaker and co-founder of Grand Rapids-based media production company Fauna Creative. He has been involved with the festival for years now, but had a somewhat unconventional path to his involvement in underwater filmmaking.

“One of the first films that I played at the Thunder Bay International Film Festival featured underwater footage that I, myself, did not capture. We hired those shots out and had a diver shoot for us, but in the back of my mind I thought, ‘Oh, I want to be doing that,’” Whalen says. “The festival was a catalyst for me getting off my butt and getting scuba-certified."

Whalen knew that the Thunder Bay International Film Festival brought together a great community of people with a variety of diving resources, and it was Gandulla who finally convinced him to take the plunge and become a certified diver. “Diving is something that Stephanie encouraged me to do because it’s really fun and fulfilling, and by the next year’s film festival I had professionally dove in three of the five Great Lakes and was able to show off my underwater work at the festival.” Whalen will be featuring a few of Fauna Creative’s films at this year’s festival, including “The Gift of the Wild” and “Coreyon,” which focus on topics like land preservation and fisheries in the Great Lakes region.

“One of the most valuable functions of this festival is demonstrating through the power of film that we truly are all connected. What people do on the coast affects us in the Great Lakes, and what we do in the Great Lakes affects the entire planet and our ocean,” says Gandulla. Whalen couldn’t agree more: “The great thing about these films is that you can always make a connection through water.”

Haley Randall is a Recreation & Tourism intern with NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

Tune in to the Thunder Bay International Film Festival every January!