Mote to host Youth Making Ripples Film Festival

When Phil Gravinese and Lauren Toth were graduate students at Florida Institute of Technology, they wanted to come up with a way to act as the bridge for students to have a voice in ocean conservation.

Four years later, the duo is about to premiere the 4th annual Youth Making Ripples Film Festival at Mote Marine Laboratory on Friday, Jan. 20. Organized by Beneath The Waves, Inc., the film festival, which was open to kids from kindergarten to twelfth grade, got 70 submissions, which Gravinese said is the average each year. The videos were all made by students, most in middle and high school, and discuss various topics on ocean conservation. Topics this year vary from plastic pollution and red tide to shark tagging and ocean conservation and politics.

“That’s one of the cool things about the program, is it’s open ended where the student can pick the topic that interests them the most or they feel the most passionate about,” Gravinese said.

Submissions are accepted throughout the year and then are judged by graduate school students at different universities over the holidays. Starting with each new year, various places, like Mote, can host film festivals for the top submissions. On Friday, 12 submissions will be shown. Each video is no longer than five minutes.

Gravinese and Toth wanted Youth Making Ripples to serve as a platform for students to get the exposure they needed to launch into bigger things.  Whether students go on to other film festivals or end up writing a youth editorial column for National Geographic Kids, like one finalist from last year is doing, Gravinese said he thinks him and Toth are starting to see real impacts in some of the students.

“One of the things we’ve always hoped for is to help cultivate a generation of ocean enthusiasts that are engaged in actually taking action and trying to make a difference for ocean conservation in a positive way,” Gravinese said.

The film festival at Mote will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a reception before the screenings where Mote scientists will showcase their research through hands-on interactive demonstrations and posters. There will be a Q-and-A sessionwith science professionals and the audience will have the chance to vote on the films for the “Viewers’ Choice Award.” The event will be held at Mote’s WAVE Center, 1600 Ken Thompson Parkway. The event is free, but RSVPs are requested. Sign up at mote.org/ripples.