For the second consecutive year, Kent School students have had the opportunity to see the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival here on campus.

Ms. Jessica Gavil from Telluride, Colorado explained that the event is an annual Memorial Weekend documentary film festival in Telluride. This year, a total of twelve short documentaries, between two and fifteen minutes long, covering a broad range of topics — from the story of a 13 year old refugee boy from Pakistan to the secret hidden world seed vault found in complete isolation in Norway — were shown.

With unique cinematography and beautiful soundtracks to match, the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival was a thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring event. Ms. Morris, who brought the festival to Kent under the PALS lecture series, first heard of the festival when she was trying to integrate a particular documentary into her classes two years ago. She hopes that students will see it not only as a lovely showcase of cinema, but also as a way to communicate important socio-political messages, and that they will be inspired to “think about their lives as not something passive but will see that everyone has a story to tell.”

It seemed to work. After watching The Time Travelers, a film about the U.S. Men’s Rafting team attempt to break the world record for fastest traversal of the Colorado River, Monika Tranova ’20 reported that, “it said something important, about how the experience building up to something builds relationships that are strong than outcomes.”

In addition to the screenings, students were also encouraged to participate in a free raffle for t-shirts and a backpack as prizes, injecting a little bit of anticipation in the event.

Ms. Morris commented that she “would encourage people to attend next year, think about the beautiful place we live in, and be inspired by our surroundings.”