Wilding Showing FREE on May 16 at San Juan Island Grange and Lopez Library
The Friday Harbor Film Festival proudly presents a special Best of the Fest screening of WILDING on Friday, May 16 at 7 pm at the SJI Grange and the Lopez Library. Based on Isabella Tree’s best-selling book, this powerful documentary captures the awe-inspiring journey of a young couple who gamble on nature to restore their struggling, 400-year-old estate. What follows is a stunning experiment in ecological revival that welcomes life back to the land in ways they never anticipated. Following the screening, enjoy an exclusive pre-recorded interview with director David Allen, offering further insights into the making of the film and the ongoing impact of the project. Details are available at fhff.org.
Wilding
Based on Isabella Tree’s best-selling book by the same title, Wilding tells the story of a young couple, Isabella and Charlie Tree, who in the 1980s inherit Knepp, a failing, four-hundred-year-old estate. By the end of the 1990s, facts must be faced: the farm isn’t working, and they are £1.5m in debt. The land is dying, the soil reduced to sterile dirt, with plummeting biodiversity levels. Battling entrenched tradition, the couple dares to place the fate of their farm in the hands of nature, with an ambitious rewilding project inspired by the thinking of European ecologists like Frans Vera.
Ripping down the fences and hoping to renew the growth of mycorrhizal fungi deep in the soil, they set the land back to the wild and entrust its recovery to a motley mix of animals both tame and wild. It is the beginning of a grand experiment that will become one of the most significant rewilding experiments in Europe. Over time, the soil replenishes itself – with a little help from some charming pigs – and the miraculous return of rare species like the purple emperor butterfly, white stork and turtle doves, who make their homes at Knepp. It is a transformation far in excess of anything anyone could have dreamed of, captured in intimate detail by five-time Emmy Award-winning documentarian David Allen and multi- BAFTA & Emmy Award-winning cinematographers Tim Cragg and Simon de Glanville.
The Best of the Fest Series Schedule
Each month through September Best of the Fest presents award-winning documentaries along with Q&As with the films’ directors and subjects. Programs begin at 7 pm. They are offered in collaboration with the San Juan Island Library, the San Juan Island Grange, and the Lopez Island Library. Since they’re on Fridays, they are a great “date night” activity.
Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers – June 20 (SJI Library/Lopez) Resident Orca – Special Event on July 16 at SJCT
A Dream Takes Flight – August 22 (Grange/Lopez) Hvaldimir – September 12 (SJI Library/Lopez)
