Hudson River Stories with Jon Bowermaster
Join filmmaker and educator Jon Bowermaster for two short screenings followed by discussion:
For the past few years, people have watched a singular sailing boat being renovated in various ports along the Hudson. The original purpose of the Schooner Apollonia, a 64-foot, steel-hulled sailboat built in the 1940s was to carry and deliver up to 20,000 pounds of cargo by sail. Their team of ambitious young adventurers, led by Captain Sam Merrett, have been working steadily to restore the dilapidated hull, overhaul its engine and sails, carve new booms and mast and return it to the water. The Apollonia has been trawling ports from Hudson to Kingston, Beacon, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Piermont and Ossining, its hold stuffed with all kinds of Upstate goods headed south – and products made in Brooklyn and Manhattan returning back north – using only sustainable energy – sail power and/or vegetable oil!
Watch the WINDSHIPPED trailer here: https://vimeo.com/735975803
Follow the journey of the palm-sized Bobolink songbird from a New York farm field to Argentina and back. Join Noah Perlut and his team of researchers as they begin tracking individual birds and following their fascinating local and international migration patterns to better understand the kinds of habitats they are drawn to during nesting, migration and in the winter across the globe. (In partnership with the Hudson Valley Farm Hub.) Watch the WONDER OF THE BOBOLINK here: https://vimeo.com/569657044
JON BOWERMASTER: Writer, filmmaker and adventurer, Jon Bowermaster is a six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council. One of the Society’s ‘Ocean Heroes,’ his first assignment for National Geographic Magazine was documenting a 3,741 mile crossing of Antarctica by dogsled. He has written eleven books and produced/directed more than thirty documentary films including ‘Dear President Obama,’ ‘Antarctica, on the Edge,’ ‘After the Spill’ and ‘Ghost Fleet.’ (oceans8films.com). His National Geographic-sponsored Oceans 8 project took him and his teams around the world by sea kayak over the course of ten years (1999-2008), bringing back stories from the Aleutian Islands to French Polynesia, Gabon to Tasmania, and more, reporting on how the planet’s one ocean and its various coastlines are faring in today’s busy world.
Jon lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. He is the President of the One Ocean Media Foundation, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Adventure Science and Creative Affiliate of The Safina Center. For the past several years, Jon and his One Ocean Media Foundation / Oceans 8 Films team have focused on a series of short films about the environmental risks to, and hopes for the Hudson River Valley, the birthplace of the American environmental movement. (hudsonriverstories.com). Jon is a Visiting Lecturer at Bard College, in the Environment and Urban Studies Department; tune into his weekly radio show/podcast, ‘The Green Radio Hour with Jon Bowermaster,’ at radiokingston.org.