Dark Side of the Loon
The eerie calls and striking black and white plumage of the common loon captivate those of us who spend time on northern lakes and ponds between April and October. Then the loons disappear. Quiet descends. Where do they go? How do they survive in winter?
Loon Chick's First Summer
A pair of Common loons nest on a small lake (in New England, we call them "ponds"). The parents await the arrival of their chick. I wait nearby in my kayak with my video camera. The chick arrives in early July, and from then to October we experience its first summer.
Birds of Los Baños
In 2018, the City of Santa Barbara approved funds to design a Splash Playground to replace the wading pool. Can 66+ adult birds and their young coexist alongside a splash playground?
Broke
BROKE tells the story of the Plains All-American Pipeline spill from May 19, 2015 through the clean up and many hearings. You'll hear the voices of those representing the pipeline company as well as many environmental activists demanding and end to oil development on the Santa Barbara coast and ocean. You'll learn about the efforts to clean and save the oiled pelicans and marine mammals and the impacts on the local fishermen.
About the Filmmaker
Gail Osherenko filmed, produced, and narrated The Dark Side of the Loon in 2007-2008. She lives in Santa Barbara, California and watches loons in Vermont in the summer.
Film making combines her passion for film and photography with her background in environmental law and science. Her first film Arctic Expedition premiered at the SBIFF in 2007.
Now retired, she taught coastal and ocean law and policy at the University of California's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. She holds a law degree from UC Davis, and worked as an environmental lawyer before moving to Vermont in 1981 and becoming immersed in Arctic studies. She studied and taught Arctic natural resources issues at the Center for Northern Studies in Vermont and at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire before relocating to Santa Barbara in 2003.