15 Years of Call2Action

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Call2Action, we have curated a collection of some of the most impactful films that demonstrate the power of film to gather communities, bring awareness, and change lives and the world around us.
Scroll down to discover more.

On closing night at BIFF 2015, Racing Extinction was shown at the Boulder Theater. This exciting documentary won BIFF 2015’s Audience Award. It follows activists with covert cameras who risk their lives by stalking shark-fin hunters, illegal wild animal traders, factory feedlots that spew tons of illegal methane, and restaurants that serve endangered species as expensive delicacies. These superhero activists also reveal the vast, undetected, ocean-killing phenomenon that the oil and gas companies don’t want us to see. Scientists predict we may lose half the species on the planet by 2100, and the filmmakers’ objective was to expose these climate threats as a wake-up call to the threat of mass extinction. The film conveys the message that the variety of life on Earth is beautiful and spectacular, and that people can do something to save it.

BIFF producer Ron Bostwick led a Q&A following the film with Academy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos, producer Olivia Ahnemann, co-producer Gina Papabeis, and race car driver Leilani Munter, who is featured in the film. After the closing night celebration, downtown Boulder buildings were lit up with whales and other imagery from Racing Extinction.

In 2022, BIFF’s People’s Choice award was a Call2Action film - This is ┃Not┃Who We Are, the world premiere of Boulder director-producers Beret Strong and Katrina Miller’s feature documentary. The film explores the gap between the progressive self-image of Boulder, purported to be “the happiest place in America,” and the lived experiences of the city’s small but resilient Black community. It poses that Boulder, like other wealthy, white, liberal university cities, professes to be an inclusive community but has a largely hidden history of segregation and racism. Key video includes a racially charged incident in 2019 in which a young Black student was threatened by police officers with drawn guns. The incident led to protest marches and sparked an official inquiry and soul searching within the community. This is ┃Not┃ Who We Are shares the voices of Boulder's African-American community and examines deep roots of institutional racism and how to open pathways for dialogue, insight, and change.

Hundreds of young people, community members, and other filmgoers attended the screening at Boulder High School and a TalkBack panel discussion featuring the filmmakers and NAACP representatives. Many who attended said they were eager to learn how to show up in solidarity and help make change toward becoming a truly welcoming and inclusive community.

At BIFF 2021, the Boulder High School auditorium was filled with students, families, and community members to view Us Kids, a powerful award-winning documentary about the March for Our Lives movement led by teen survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which claimed 17 lives. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for American children and teens. Us Kids chronicles how, in response to this violent tragedy, student activists at the school, supported by Students Demand Action, an initiative of Everytown for Gun Safety, helped organize a national youth movement for stricter gun laws. The free film was shown just three months after Boulder experienced our own gun tragedy, the King Soopers mass shooting in which 10 people died. Many filmgoers said the evening was emotionally wrenching but also inspiring to hear how high school and college students were mobilizing to educate peers, register voters, and demand common-sense solutions for gun violence.

In 2011, BIFF’s Call2Action program welcomed Civil Rights legend U.S. Rep. John C. Lewis (D-GA) to the Boulder Theater screening of the documentary Freedom Riders and to talk about the Freedom Rides and his legacy of nonviolent leadership. In May 1961, as a 21-year-old seminary student, Lewis and 12 other Freedom Riders—Black and white, men and women—set out from Washington D.C. on two buses bound for New Orleans. Freedom Riders chronicles how these activists risked their lives to deliberately violate Jim Crow laws and bring attention to racial segregation in the deep South by trying to integrate interstate buses and terminals. Their goal was to challenge racist state laws and call upon the federal government to enforce a recent Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the segregation of interstate travel. They encountered violent mobs, including those led by the Ku Klux Klan, were beaten and jailed, and one of their buses was firebombed. As word of their courage spread, hundreds of volunteers came from across the country to join the Freedom Riders, and many were attacked and jailed. The campaign claimed national attention and compelled the Kennedy administration to send in U.S. Marshalls to protect the riders and to change federal regulations to end segregated interstate busing.

Following the Freedom Riders screening at Boulder Theater, Lewis was introduced by U.S. Senator Mark Udall and then-U.S. Rep. (now Colorado Governor) Jared Polis (BIFF also held a free screening for youth at the Boulder Public Library). In an interview with BIFF’s Ron Bostwick, Lewis talked about his legacy in this key moment in the Civil Rights movement and the power of ordinary people to make change. In response to a question from a filmgoer on how young people could make a difference, he advised being kind to others and grateful to those in public service, including teachers. He was elected to Congress to represent Georgia’s 5th Congressional District in 1986 and served until his death in 2020. In 2011, Lewis, one of 10 children of Alabama sharecroppers, was recognized as an American hero and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

When Charles Burrell and Isabella Tree inherited Knepp, a 3,500-acre estate in Sussex, England owned by his family since 1802, they tried to farm conventionally with pesticides, herbicides, and large equipment. But after generations of over-farming, the land had become barren, a virtual biological desert. This delightful and inspiring documentary from an Academy-Award-winning studio about a quest to rewild a rundown estate featured lush cinematography and capering wild animals, a sort of African safari reframed in the English countryside. Based on Tree’s best-selling book, Wilding, the film chronicles how the Burrells chose a radical route to re-awaken the landscape and restore wildlife. They tossed out chemicals, tore down fences, and reintroduced wild cattle, ponies, and pigs to roam and graze as they wished. The animals stirred up and enriched the soil, which led to a dramatic bloom in biodiversity, drawing new plant and animal species such as nightingales, peregrine falcons, rare bats, beavers, butterflies, and beneficial insects that restored woods, meadows, and wetlands. Aided by glamping and educational safaris, they have created a thriving and sustainable estate, which has become a new conservation model for Great Britain and beyond.

In 2024, BIFF presented Wilding as both a Call2Action and an Adventure Film Pavilion selection. At a TalkBack session after the film, Boulder Open Space Conservancy co-presenters discussed actions filmgoers could take to help wild the world. These included volunteering to maintain Open Space and Mountain Parks trails, becoming employer sponsors or donors to BOSC, introducing young people to nature through hiking and field trips, and learning how to wild their own yards to create more diverse ecosystems.

BIFF’s Call2Action program noted in 2019 that Judge Craig Mitchell was “the definition of inspirational.” By day he presided over a criminal court for Los Angeles County, but early mornings found him running the darkened streets of L.A. among the thousands of people who called Skid Row home. He sought to balance his judicial requirements with compassion for those he sentenced and started a running club at the Midnight Mission, inviting people who considered themselves defeated, including homeless addicts, a recovering single mom, and a paroled murderer. He started with a few runners several days a week with the idea that the discipline of training for a marathon and the camaraderie of doing so with others could instill a sense of purpose and self-worth. The film follows four of these runners as they rise from the mean streets to run in international marathons in Ghana and Rome. As they trained together, they learned to trust Mitchell and each other, creating bonds and a supportive community. And they learned to dream big and gain confidence that they could earn a second chance at life. As one of runners noted, “Running gives us our fight back.” The film eloquently addressed the life-changing power of hope, friendship, and dignity.

Emotional and uplifting, Skid Row Marathon had a big impact on filmgoers and won the People’s Choice Award for feature films at BIFF 2019, as well as top awards at many other film festivals. After the screening at Boulder Theater, Judge Craig Mitchell spoke about his inspiration for starting the Skid Row running club. At the TalkBack Café at BIFF’s tent on the Pearl Street Mall, Boulder running advocate and journalist Mike Sandrock introduced co-presenters from The Phoenix (thephoenix.org), a free nationwide support program, founded in Boulder, who talked about the important role of building community and engaging in healthy active pursuits like running, climbing, hiking, cycling and yoga in addiction recovery.

Pick of the Litter, one of the BIFF Call2Action program’s best-loved films in 2018, follows a lively litter of five puppies from the moment they’re born through the challenging training required to become guide dogs for the blind and visually impaired. Cameras follow the pups through the intense two-year process, supported by a community dedicated to empowering blind and visually impaired people to move through the world safely and confidently with specially selected dogs as their guides and companions. The puppies learn when to listen and when not to listen to commands to keep their partners safe. The stakes are high, and only the best of the best, the pick of the litter, make the cut. Screened at Boulder High Auditorium, this award-winning documentary conveyed the hard work and discipline required of both puppy raisers and trainers and the puppies themselves, and the hurdles and joys they share along the way.

In a packed TalkBack session after the film, several dogs raised by Boulder Puppy Raisers grabbed center stage and filmgoers’ hearts. Call2Action volunteers partnered with Boulder Puppy Raisers to share how filmgoers could make a difference--by learning about guide dog training, raising a guide dog puppy, and supporting the Guide Dogs for the Blind organization.