Environmental Shorts Program

Join us in celebration of the Center for Environmental Journalism’s 30th anniversary of the Ted Scripps Fellowships program! This show features a collection of short documentaries focused on environmentalism and human connections, with the filmmakers all in person. Current lineup includes:

“Reindalen”, with director Mo Heim in person. Morgan (Mo) Heim, a CU alum (MA - Environmental Journalism, BS - Zoology) will be visiting in person from Oregon. She is a wildlife photojournalist, filmmaker and adventurer, who began her career studying fisheries, listening to whales and working on dam removal projects. She is the founder of Neon Raven Story Labs, a storytelling and strategy platform for conservation, and in 2020 co-launched Her Wild Vision Initiative aimed at raising the voices of diverse women in the craft of conservation visual storytelling. Morgan is a Senior Fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers and in 2024 was named a National Geographic Explorer. Her films have toured with Telluride and Banff Mountain Film Festivals, as well as been finalists in the Jackson Wild Media Awards.

“True-Life Adventures I, II, II”, with director Erin Espelie in person. Erin Espelie is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts at CU Boulder.

“Sound Guardians”, with director Leah Varjacues in person. Leah Varjacques is a 2X Emmy-award winning video journalist, producer and cinematographer with over a decade of experience making documentaries and covering the news. Her work has appeared on The New York Times, FX/Hulu, Showtime, VICE News Tonight, The Atlantic, and more. Her latest work is a short documentary film called Sound Guardians, about an indigenous community in Borneo preserving its eco-cultural heritage through sound recordings as Indonesia cuts down the forest to build a new capital city.

"The Life We Have" with Sam Price-Waldman in person. Sam Price-Waldman's short documentaries have earned eight Vimeo Staff Picks and have been featured on PBS, National Geographic, and The Atlantic, as well as at film festivals including Full Frame, Camden, AFI Docs, Big Sky, Santa Fe, Hot Springs, Atlanta, and Nashville. His recent film, The Life We Have, won Best Short Documentary at AmDocs, the Audience Award at Mountainfilm, Best of Festival at 5Point and Flagstaff Mountain Film, and a 2026 Webby Award.

A pre-screening reception will be held on the patio above Muenzinger auditorium (weather permitting) at 6:30pm. If weather does not permit, we will hold the reception in the ATLAS building lobby at the same time.