Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival Showcase

We are kicking off Colorado River Days with our annual tribute to “The River”. This year along with our partner Mountain Sports, we will feature Patagonia Inc’s new film Blue Heart, which tells the tale of the Balkan people’s fight against the gravest impending environmental disaster in Europe. Join us for Blue Heart and a selection of new and encore shorts that pay tribute to the spirit of Big Red!​

Blue Heart Synopsis:
The Balkan Peninsula is home to the last wild rivers in Europe. However, a deluge of hydropower development threatens to destroy the culture and ecology of this forgotten region. If fierce local opposition fails, the last undammed watersheds on the continent will be corralled by more than 3,000 proposed hydropower dams and diversions—at a time when dams are being decommissioned throughout much of the developed world.

Activists, who span the shores of these rivers, and European NGOs such as RiverWatch (run by German activist Ulrich Eichelmann), are fighting against local government corruption and foreign investment. Blue Heart documents the battle for the largest undammed river in Europe, Albania’s Vjosa, the effort to save the endangered Balkan lynx in Macedonia, and the women of Kruščica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, who are spearheading a months-long, 24/7 protest to protect their community’s only source of drinking water. These and other stories expose for the first time the gravest impending environmental disaster in Europe.