Last week filmmaker and science educator Ellie Mackay once again hosted the Adventure Uncovered Film Festival at Blue Earth Summit, the leading impact event that finds and funds solutions to regenerate our natural world. 

The Summit’s surf culture heritage (set up by Wavelength Media and previously hosted at The Wave, Bristol) makes for an ideal collaboration, and the programme lined-up a mega evening of inspiring, purpose-driven adventure films, followed with onstage Q&As with the films’ directors, producers and activists. 

Phil Webb, Producer, of Jo in the Water coming to cinemas in 2025 said, “Thank you for allowing us to share our film teaser at Blue Earth, it was a real pleasure to be part of the Q&A and an honour to share the platform, we’ve had an amazing response to our crowdfunding campaign, already 30% of our target.”

This year’s line-up mixed Adventure Uncovered 2024 festival submissions with films from the Blue Earth community, using adventure and the outdoors (via trail running, fishing, climbing, skiing, surfing, swimming) to motivate and inspire positive action on the environment. 

The evening kicked off with Bognor Fishing, Bank from the Brink, Blue Marine Foundation’s beautiful 5-minute profile of Clive Mills’ activism to support the Sussex Kelp Restoration Project. Aletta Harrison’s Cutting the Crap was up next followed by a preview of Jo in the Water which highlights the terrible reality of sewage and pollution in our rivers and seas. The latter is still in production and planned for release in summer 2025. To support this activism and be part of the project, you can visit producer Philippe Webb’s crowdfunding page. 

From a water-themed start, the programme moved to colder climes. Renowned photographer and long-standing friend of Adventure Uncovered Hannah Bailey joined Scottish Snowboarder Lesley McKenna for a Q&A following a screening of Patagonia produced-film Thrawn - A Stubbornly Scottish Snow Film, which celebrates the hardiness of the snowsport scene in Aviemore and showcases the vibrant community that cares deeply about the environmental and social future of the town. 

Folks from Protect our Winters came in force and brought the energy. Downstream, a project about melting glaciers and their impact on everything downstream premiered with a Q&A with Partnerships Director Dan Yates and filmmaker Huw Jones. This was followed by a trailer and teaser for The Last Ride Project, an ambitious world’s first in global ski mountaineering, and an exploratory documentary investigating catastrophic deglaciation and its effects within the wider climate emergency, discussed with Ed Salisbury, Will Tucker and Jon Moy.

All proceeds from the charity raffle went to support Surf Cerrito, a brilliant Non-Profit in Peru that aims to empower boys and girls through surfing. Their film Libertad premiered too. Check them out. 

To conclude: Mega line-up, mega people, mega evening. Hugely inspiring. 

All that’s left to say is thanks, to all that came.