The entryway to the D.P. Culp Auditorium was filled with different booths that advertised different national parks, outdoor gear and ways to live a greener lifestyle. All of this was done for the Wild and Scenic Film Festival.
“This is our fourth year,” Kathleen Moore said. “I started it. I got information about an email from the national group Wild and Scenic Throughout California and saw that they were out promoting their film festival and I thought, ‘Well, that’d be kind of interesting.'”
Moore said one of the reasons she wanted to bring the festival to ETSU was because she wanted people to really care about protecting the wild areas and mountains around the university.
“You really have to get out there and see how beautiful they are and experience them,” Moore said. “I thought this film festival would be a great opportunity to show beautiful films from all over the world and hopefully inspire people to action.”
As a part of the festival, Moore said 22 booths were set up to give different groups a showcase and hopefully get volunteers out to join their organizations. One of the booths set up was for Rocky Fork State Park.
“Rocky Fork and the friends of Rocky Fork are the featured guests of the night,” park ranger Tim Pharis said. “We’re the newest state park in Tennessee, so we’re getting the word out about our park.”
“It’s a beautiful place. It’s 2000 acres of pristine wilderness,” Pharis said. “We’re trying to get the word out that there’s a gateway to the Appalachian Trail just thirty minutes down the road.”
Moore said one of the films being shown was about Rocky Fork State Park. Some of the other films at the festival include national films and student films.
“We’re showing 14 national films,” Moore said. “We had two hundred to choose from, and we chose the fourteen that would work the best with our theme, and then we also have three student films that we’re showing…They’re all ETSU students.”
At the end of the night, Moore hopes that the audience learns the importance of protecting the planet.
“We have a beautiful world,” Moore said. “We need to work together to protect it.”
