Our partnership with the Friday Harbor Film Festival’s Best of the Fest Series continues with a double feature of two powerful, audience-selected documentaries. “Sitka’s Hidden Wonders” and “From Sea to Shining Sea” will be shown Friday, April 24th at 7 PM at the Lopez Center for Community and the Arts.
2025 FHFF Audience Choice NOMINEE – Best “Tales from the Heart” Feature Film, Sitka’s Hidden Wonders is a theatrical nature film that blends sweeping cinematography with a deeply personal story of return. Told by award–winning wildlife filmmaker Ben Hamilton, the film explores what it means to truly see a place—through the hidden layers of one of Alaska’s wildest coastal ecosystems.
Told with quiet intimacy and sweeping cinematography, the film reveals the hidden layers of a coastal ecosystem shaped by extremes—where humpbacks feed in nutrient-rich waters, bears wander temperate rainforests, seabirds emerge only under moonlight, and glowing plankton spark life from the abyss. Filmed entirely in Sitka and the surrounding islands over the past decade, the project weaves natural history with personal reflection, inviting viewers to slow down and look more closely—not just at the wild, but at how we relate to it.
From Sea to Shining Sea explores the rich life of poet, professor and social reformer Katharine Lee Bates, author of AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Bates’ story reminds us of the beauty and ideals of our nation as well as its shortcomings and honors the unbroken chain of Americans striving to live up to those ideals.
In a time of deep division, this film aims to inspire unity and reflection, celebrating the beauty of our nation while acknowledging its flaws and the ongoing journey to fulfill its promises.
Inspired by the sweeping vistas of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains she saw from Colorado’s Pike’s Peak in 1893, Bates penned lyrics that reflect both a love for her country and a desire for reform, while honoring generations of Americans striving toward its most compelling ideals.
Hundreds of still photos, archival film clips, beautiful watercolors and stunning contemporary footage bring to life the dramatic historical events that shaped Bates’ thinking, including the Civil War, the suffrage movement, the Gilded Age, the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, immigration to America, the Spanish American War, the Lawrence textile strike of 1912, and the First World War.