From otters wading in rivers to herons hunting for prey, Rhode Island’s wildlife was on full display this Sunday at the Rhode Island Nature Video Festival.
Community members gathered at Rhode Island College to view a compilation of videos by 16 filmmakers, showcasing the Ocean State’s nature and wildlife. Founded by Greg Gerritt, a former administrator for the Environment Council of Rhode Island, the festival was sponsored by the Rhode Island Natural History Survey, the RIC Environmental Club, the Ocean State Film Society and the RIC Film Studies Program.
Gerritt began filming animals in Providence about 12 years ago at the North Burial Ground.
“I saw some tadpoles, and I said, ‘Somebody should get a video of these tadpoles so we can watch them as they grow into little toads,’” Gerritt recalled. “Now, I do videos of all kinds of animals.”
Gerritt conducts research on economics and environmental justice, he said. But when capturing footage of wildlife, “you put that stuff away, and you just watch the animals do their thing.”
His submission at this year’s festival, titled “Urban Predators,” pictured a family of coyotes at the North Burial Ground, a great horned owl being harassed by a crowd of crows and rare footage of otters wading in Rhode Island waters.
Alongside Gerritt, 15 other filmmakers presented their creations.
David Chatowsky starred in “Painting Time w David Chatowsky: Submarine Journey 1,” where he took viewers to the depths of the Great Salt Pond off the shore of Block Island. After he lowered himself into his one-man submarine pod, Chatowsky filmed the creatures that live on the pond’s floor.
In Elise Torello’s “Dinner Time! Starring The Hungry Birds,” great blue herons skillfully caught freshwater fish before swallowing them whole. The audience was amused by one particular heron, which repeatedly stabbed its prey with its beak on screen for several minutes.
“We Need the Bees” was a music video made by first graders seeking to spread awareness about dwindling bee populations in the state. “Up and Out! Hooded Mergansers 63 Days to ‘Jump!’” showcased freshly hatched chicks as they made an 18-foot jump from their nest. In “Wildlife Bridge,” bobcats, raccoons and almost 20 other species crossed a natural log bridge over the course of a year.
The festival concluded with the showing of photographer Joe Morel’s “Observing Peak Auroral Activity of Solar Cycle 25,” which featured timelapses of the Rhode Island scenery under the northern lights.
Morel first captured the northern lights while visiting Iceland with his wife. The northern lights are “like a photographer’s playground,” Morel said.
After viewing the northern lights in Rhode Island, “I realized I wanted to make it into a little project, kind of string it all together, and this was a good event to do it for,” Morel added.
For Janis Nepshinsky, the visitor services manager for the Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, the festival could be summarized in one word: “fabulous.”
“It’s really nice to see the wildlife through other lenses,” said Nepshinsky, who is also the project manager of the Providence Urban Wildlife Conservation Partnership. Nephinsky added that the filmmakers “all have their little niches of what makes them connect with Rhode Island (habitats) and what they could do to conserve” them.
Nepshinsky believes “you don’t have to be a biologist” to care about the state’s wildlife. “You can be an artist, you can be a writer, you can be a cameraman,” she added.
To get people to care about Rhode Island’s wildlife, Nepshinsky said there must be an emotional connection. “These kinds of films” spark that, she said.
Zach Robel is a Senior Staff Writer from Corvallis, Oregon, studying economics and environmental studies at Brown.
