Tree Fest
- Thu, Apr 2
Run Time: 120 min.
TICKETS FREE
Doors 6:30 p.m.; Event 7 p.m.
Select Showtime to Purchase Tickets
Click here to learn more about accessibility at the Tomorrow Theater.
This event is free as part of PAM’s Free First Thursday, thanks to generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.
THE EXPERIENCE
Come join Tree Fest for a one-day celebration of our shared life with trees! Presented by PAMCUT in collaboration with Trees & Co and NW Doc, this special event invites audiences to reflect on the deep and lasting connections between people and forests. Tree Fest features a curated selection of short films that explore how trees influence our daily lives, our histories, and our hopes for the future. Through stories of scientists, artists, and local communities, the films highlight both the beauty of forests and the responsibility we share in caring for them. Following the screenings, a panel discussion will bring filmmakers and guests together to explore what it means to live in relationship with trees in a changing world. Authors Casey Clapp and Peg Herring will be in attendance, sharing their newest books and insights on forests, ecology, and human connection to the natural world. Tree Fest is an invitation to celebrate and reconnect with stories, with each other, and with the trees that sustain us.
ON SCREEN: Tree Fest
A Forest Log – Directed by David Herasimtschuk – 11 mins. 2006
Through the perspective of writer and artist Peg Herring, this vibrant documentary journeys into the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, uncovering how these forests function, the ways they’ve been impacted over time, and why protecting the remaining old-growth on public lands is more urgent than ever.
Nuu-k’wii-daa-naa—ye – Directed by David-Paul Hedberg – 10 mins. 2021
Produced for the Oregon Heritage Tree and Historical Marker Program to document the community history and significance associated with a Sitka spruce tree in Lincoln City’s Regatta Park. Despite extensive logging during World War I, loggers saved this tree to reseed the forest. A cross cultural coalition of residents, including a Siletz tribal member named the tree, Nuu-k’wii-daa-naa~-ye “Our Ancestor” in the Siletz language as a reminder for every visitor to connect with their ancestors.
Between Earth and Sky – Directed by Andrew Nadkarni – 26 mins. 2023
Renowned ecologist Nalini Nadkarni studies “what grows back” after a disturbance in the rainforest canopy. After surviving a life-threatening fall from a tree, she must turn her research question onto herself to explore the effects of disturbance and recovery throughout her own Life.
Free to Grow – Directed by Jesse Andrew Clark – 29 mins. 2025
Rural Oregon families have taken up the fight against aerial herbicide spraying by the forestry industry for more than 50 years — but has public safety around these substances since improved? Weaving historic archival footage with modern-day stories, the film is a powerful portrait of families grappling with the realities of herbicide exposure in their own backyards.
Giants – Directed by Luz Carasa – 27 mins. 2019
Quietly dismissed by agency, silenced by industry, and threatened by fellow community, rural families in the Pacific Northwest have lived alongside industrial forestry herbicide spraying for more than 80 years. Spanning four storylines, the characters in the film point to an ongoing public health risk caused by these industrial practices on Oregon’s most aggressively managed timber plantations.
ON STAGE:
David-Paul B. Hedberg is an independent historian in Portland, Oregon. He holds an MA in history from Portland State University. His research interests center on environmental history, the history of the Pacific Northwest, and public interpretation. His public history work ranges from cultural resource management to documentary films. He has developed public history programs for Portland Parks & Recreation, where he authored From Stumptown to Treetown: A Field Guide for Interpreting Portland’s History Through its Heritage Trees, and served as series producer for Canopy Stories, a film anthology by NW Documentary about storied trees in Portland.
Peg Herring: M. L. Herring is a prolific ecologist and associate professor emerita of science communication at Oregon State University, where she continues to lead workshops to inspire people to experience the world through observation, art, and ecology. She lives in Corvallis, OR.
Luz Carasa is an editor, writer, and storyteller based in the Pacific Northwest. She grew up in Spain and studied anthropology and film between Madrid, Barcelona, and Berlin. She has also worked as an editor in several independent documentary films with awards in many festivals: Waking the Camino: 6 ways to Santiago”,” Seed: The Untold Story,” “Voyageurs without Trace,” among others. She has also worked on several projects produced by OPB/ PBS.
