Film festival worth the ferry trip

The Friday Harbor Film Festival depends on its volunteers and sponsors, but the two individuals who drive it are co-founding director Lynn Danaher and producer Karen Palmer. Each came up with the idea of a fall film festival for their adopted hometown independently. They put their heads and grant proposals together for the first film festival in 2013, fueled by hotel motel tax funding from San Juan County and the town of Friday Harbor.

They have grown their vision into the sixth annual Friday Harbor Film Festival this weekend, Oct 26-28. Twenty-five feature-length and 22 short documentaries will be shown in four blocks daily starting at 10 a.m.

Films could be made for each of their lives as well as one telling the development of the festival. New producer Bex Bishop says Danaher “has dedicated her life to research. She started the Pacific Islands Research Institute and is on the board of The Explorers Club.”

Her website bio summarizes her commitment to adventure, local politics and environmental issues. She came to the San Juan Islands via Alaska and Hawaii, is a dive master, expedition guide and zodiac driver on ship and has been to all seven continents.

Palmer’s 25-year film and television career includes Showtime Networks and co-managing the start of Robert Redford’s Sundance Channel. After retiring in 2005 she moved with her husband to San Juan Island because she is a world-class sailboat racer.

The two came up with the slogan “Stories of the Pacific Rim and Beyond,” naturally. Their logo includes orcas chasing salmon. Bishop says, “they’ve been inspired by documentaries, starting with the tagline ‘entertain, inspire, enlighten’. The goal is not just to entertain but go out there and do something.”

Danaher calls this a filmmakers’ festival. “We celebrate the filmmaker,” she said. “These are people dedicated to their craft. They are not the money people.” The filmmakers attend the Q & A, which are after almost every film, making the experience much richer for the attendees, said Danaher.

Captain Paul Watson, a Greenpeace co-founder and creator of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is also a filmmaker, exemplifying the vision of the Film Festival. He is this year’s recipient of their Andrew V. McLaglen Lifetime Achievement Award, “honor[ing] an individual who has made outstanding contributions to raising the general public’s awareness of important issues, either through his/her activism or as a filmmaker.” McLaglen was an award-winning film director and long-time resident of San Juan Island.

The Local Hero Award goes to composer Alex Shapiro. This recognizes “a current or former resident of the San Juan Islands who has made outstanding contributions to [the Islands’] quality of life, impacting people, animals, the arts, health or the environment.” She will be honored at Sunday’s Final Awards Presentation. Also recognized will be an Emerging Filmmaker, a San Juan Islander learning the craft. The evening includes film Category Favorites and a screening of the Audience Choice Film Award.

Tickets can be bought singularly, in packages of five or 10, or by an all films wristband, with priority seating and admission to the gala. Student passes are free, no matter where the students live.

Information: fhff.org, 360-298-1939.

In 2017 1,200 “unique attendees” totaled 4,000 viewings. Palmer estimates that will increase to 1,600 this year.

Because of reduced ferry service, there are no vehicle reservations this weekend. Vehicles will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis. Festival staff encourage “everyone to walk on in Anacortes and once arrived in Friday Harbor, the venues and accommodations are all within walking distance, a few blocks from each other.”

Morning ferries leave at 8:10 a.m. and 11:25 a.m. Friday.

“We evolve and have a ball because of it,” Palmer said. Go and see for yourself.