We are very surprised and delighted to share that The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay received the top award at the Nature Without Borders International Film Festival! The screening event takes place in Delaware sometime in June and and we’ll let you know more as do we know more. This past week we also received the Outstanding Excellence Award for a Wildlife/Nature Documentary at the Women’s International Film Festival – a two award week! I don’t think that will ever happen again. Thank you once again to all our supporters. We would not be this far along in production without your kind and generous help.
Beautiful words of wisdom to keep in mind, from Emily Dickinson –
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
Two hopeful good news ‘things with feathers’ happenings to share – The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay was awarded the Best Feature Documentary at the Queen City Film Festival. I am looking forward to sharing the news with my father- and sister-in-law, and my husband’s entire family because they all live in, or come from, Cincinnati!
Even though we gave the location of the film a fictional name, Moonlight Bay, the locations look a great deal like north of Boston/Atlantic coast beaches. One of my greatest hopes for our Plover documentary is that it would have universal appeal, that people of all ages from regions across the country would find the film interesting. We are overjoyed audiences are finding it so!
The very day the news of the award came to my inbox, a story about Piping Plover chicks at the Cincinnati Zoo did as well. Three chick were hand-reared at the zoo this past summer. Due to nest abandonment, each summer a portion of Piping Plover eggs are rescued from their natural habitat. Zookeepers from around the country work to hatch and rear the chicks in a project created by the Detroit Zoo. Volunteers monitor wild nests closely and if they find eggs in need of attention, they collect and deliver the eggs to the hand-rearing facility. This season, a total of 22 chicks were hatched out. The three hand-reared chicks at the Cincinnati Zoo were successfully returned to the wild.
The Atlantic Coast Piping Plovers are on the threatened species list however, the Great Lakes Plovers are at even greater risk. Great Lakes Plovers are listed as endangered. When the Great Lakes Plovers were given the ESA listing in 1984, there were only 12 Great Lakes pairs remaining. 2024 was a record year for GLPlover, with 78 pairs successfully fledging 122 wild chicks.
We are making headway in our grant writing and fundraising efforts and I hope to have some good news to share with you soon. In the meantime, I would like to thank once again all our friends who have donated so generously. Without your kind help, we would not be nearly as far along in production and in film festival submissions. Thank you.
With gratitude to the following PiPl friends for their kind contributions – Lauren Mercadante (New Hampshire), Jane Alexander (New York), Cornelius Hauck (Cincinnati), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Cape Ann Garden Club, Brace Cove Foundation (Gloucester), JH Foundation/Fifth Third Bank (Ohio), Janis and John Bell (Gloucester), Jennie Meyer (Gloucester), Alice and David Gardner (Beverly), JoeAnn Hart (Gloucester), Kim Tieger (Manchester), Joanne Hurd (Gloucester), Holly Niperus (Phoenix), Bill Girolamo (Melrose), Claudia Bermudez (Gloucester), Paula and Alexa Niziak (Rockport), Todd Pover (Springfield), Cynthia Dunn (Gloucester), Nancy Mattern (Albuquerque), Marion Frost (Ipswich), Cecile Christianson (Peabody), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Donna Poirier Connerty (Gloucester), Mary Rhinelander (Gloucester), Jane Hazzard (Georgetown), Duncan Holloman (Gloucester), Karen Blandino (Rockport), Duncan Todd (Lexington), Sue Winslow (Gloucester), Amy Hauck-Kalti (Ohio), JoAnn Souza (Newburyport), Karen Thompson (San Francisco), Carolyn Mostello (Rhode Island), Susan Pollack (Gloucester), Peggy O’Malley (Gloucester), Hilda Santos (Gloucester), Maggie Debbie (Gloucester), Sandy Barry (Gloucester), The Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution, Mary Keys (Madeira, Ohio), Barbara Boudreau (Gloucester), Suki Augusti (Rockport), Jonathan and Sally Golding (Gloucester), Sue Winslow (Gloucester), Cecile Christensen (Peabody), Marty and Russ Coleman (Dallas), David Brooks (Troy, Michigan), Karen Maslow (Gloucester), Lisa Craig (Winchester), Menotomy Bird Club (Winchester), Lyda Kuth (Belmont), and, my as always, wonderfully supportive husband, Tom ❤
Knowing of Chicagoans great love for the Montrose Bay Piping Plovers Monty and Rose (and their offspring Imani and Nagamo), I applied to several festivals in the Great Lakes region. We are delighted to post that last week The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay was accepted to the Chicago Women Film Festival. I was planning to share that when we just received notice that The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay has been awarded the Best Environmental Film at the CWFF. In case you have PiPl friends in the area that may be interested in attending, as soon as we know when it is going to screen at the festival, we’ll let you know.
Thank you for this tremendous honor Chicago Women Film Festival!
We are also very excited to share that we have been nominated to the Montreal Independent Film Festival.
The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay is an official selection and/or award winner at the following festivals:
Boston Film Festival – Eco Film Award Chicago Women’s Film Festival- Best Environmental Documentary F3: Queen City Film Festival – Best feature Documentary Cine Paris Film Festival – Best Family Friendly Film Boston International Kids Film Festival Montreal Independent Film Festival Dumbo Film Festival San Diego International Kids Film Festival Berlin Women Cinema Festival France USA International Film Festival Toronto International Film festival Nature Without Borders Film festival International Motion Picture Awards Documentaries Without Borders Film Festival WPRN Women’s International Film Festival Newburyport Documentary Festival (withdrawn due to scheduling conflict)
There are a bunch of eggs in our Plover film. Not only Plover eggs, but Easter eggs. Some are more obvious than others. I hope you have fun finding them!
A characteristic behavior of many male Plovers when they first arrive to a potential breeding site is called “flight display.” The birds circle around and around a location, piping loudly. A male showing flight display behavior will do this for several days, and even longer. Hopefully, he will eventually attract the attention of a female. The above clip is an obvious Easter egg 🙂
Thank you to everyone who is planning to attend. We are so very much looking forward to seeing you!
Many thanks to Gail McCarthy and the Gloucester Daily Times for again featuring the Boston Film Festival and our Piping Plover premiere in Gail’s T.G.I.F. column. Second time we’ve been listed in Google Alerts for the BFF!
Thank you to everyone who is planning to attend. We are so very much looking forward to seeing you!
Thank you so much to the Boston Film Festival for this beautiful poster for our film premiere! With gratitude to Robin Dawson, the Boston Film Festival and Rockport Music.
Many, many, thanks to Gail McCarthy and Editor Andrea Holbrook for the very much appreciated write-up about the Boston Film Festival in today’s Gloucester Daily Times. Extra special shout out and thanks for featuring The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay!
I hope you are enjoying these wonderfully warm last days of summer. I can see the critters sure are! Herons, butterflies, frogs, dragonflies, beavers, bees, hawks, Kingfishers, (even a Merlin!); our ponds, meadows, and shores are teeming with wildlife preparing for winter.
I have been super busy fundraising and organizing deliverables for festivals and apologize for not sharing some of the incredible stories taking place right here in our own backyards. As soon as I get further along in all, I’ll share the images and footage. Some of the most fascinating moments have been watching a beaver. I think I posted on my website a video of a beaver rubbing his belly. A few days later, I observed him/her as he exfoliated (for lack of a better word) his face. First he dove down and retrieved a water lily tuber, which is an especially favorite beaver food at this time of year. After eating half, he then used the tuber to scrub the left side of his face. I thought perhaps this was an anomaly. Five minutes later he dove down, retrieved a second tuber, agan eating half. Then he scrubbed the right side of his face with the tuber. It was charming and funny and amazing to see and to film. Coming soon 🙂
Please be sure to reserve your seats at the Shalin Liu for the premiere of our documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay. Here is the link: https://rockportmusic.org/boston-film-festival/ It’s a truly heartwarming story and I think Massachusetts residents especially will be delighted with the film. Also, we are having a Q and A following the screening. Tickets are free but you do need to reserve in advance. That the tickets are free is a wonderfully generous gift to our community from the Boston Film Festival and Rockport Music. The 23rd is a Monday and 5:15pm is early enough in the evening for kids to see on a school night. Please bring your family and friends. We would love to see you there!
Warmest wishes, xxKim
From teeny hatchlings to the miracle of fledging on crowded urban beaches, come celebrate the beautiful life story of the Piping Plover with us!
I have the best news to share with you. Our documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, has been accepted to the world-renowned Boston Film Festival. Even more exciting, we are having the live screening premiere locally at the Shalin Liu! The event is presented by the Boston Film Festival and Rockport Music. Tickets are free, a wonderfully generous gift to our community from the BFF and Rockport Music. Please save the date, Monday, September 23rd, at 5:15pm, and make your reservations today! Here is the link to reserve seats: https://tickets.rockportmusic.org/9769/9770
The Boston Film Festival is celebrating 40 yearswith a record six premieres, including three feature films and three documentaries. Please find the stellar line-up of films and screening schedule here: https://bostonfilmfestival.org/schedule-and-tickets/
Each and every friend receiving this email note has contributed in some way or another to helping launch our documentary, whether a friend to the Plovers on the beach, a beloved Ambassador, an advocate, a well-wisher, or contributed financially with a generous donation. We are continuing fundraising in our efforts to launch the film on public television, part two of the fundraiser, so to speak however, launching our documentary at film festivals is a huge milestone and we are so appreciative of everyone’s generosity. My most heartfelt thanks and deepest appreciation for your caring kindness for the Plovers.
I hope to see you at the premiere!
Warmest wishes,
xxKim
To become an underwriter on public television for The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, please contact the director at 978-290-3804 or visit our online fundraiser here.
The Piping Plover Project 