NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, April 24.
FORKS — The second half of RainFest begins tonight with a series of short films, a coastal cleanup, a dinner and trash art and fashion shows, all focusing on the Pacific Ocean and the rivers of Clallam and Jefferson counties.
RainFest River and Ocean Days opens at the Rainforest Arts Center, 35 N. Forks Ave., with the CoastSavers display: “Bottles, Foam and Rope: Talking Trash on the Washington Coast” and the Trashion show, each highlighting the ongoing battle with marine debris on shorelines.
The CoastSavers display will be open from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. today and from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday at the arts center and features items found on Washington beaches.
Traveling exhibit
The traveling exhibit, which was recently hosted at the Port Angeles Library, focuses on Washington coast habitats and the risks posed to sea and beach life by marine debris.
Doors open for Trashion Show at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. today at the Rainforest Arts Center.
After volunteers clean the beaches Saturday during the Washington Coast Cleanup, Forks will celebrate with dinner and movies.
Latino dinner
From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Forks High School senior parents will host an “authentic Latino dinner” at the arts center.
The $10 meal includes chicken enchiladas, tamales, rice, beans, chips and salsa with a drink.
River and ocean booths and displays also will be open from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The second annual River & Ocean Film Festival will begin at 7 p.m. at the arts center.
The free film festival will feature 10 short films that range in length from three minutes to 28 minutes.
The films either feature West End rivers and the Pacific Ocean near the North Olympic Peninsula coast or are related to the interests and concerns of the West End, said Ian Miller, coastal hazard specialist for Washington Sea Grant, one of the sponsors of the festival.
As of Wednesday, not all of the films had been selected and confirmed, Miller said.
“We had more submitted than we could show,” he said.
Miller said most of them are documentary style, but there is also a stop-motion animation film about a whale rescue.
“The Whale Story,” filmed in Seattle by Tess Martin, was inspired by a radio story about a fisherman who helped untangle a whale caught in fishing gear off on the Pacific Coast.
Animation was drawn in paint on a 16-foot high wall.
“Evergreen State Stouts” is a documentary film by Todd Wells, Eric Parker, Patrick Orton in which whitewater kayakers filmed their adventures on local rivers.
“It has amazing descents of rivers on the Peninsula,” he said.
A Film Fest Intermission Desert Social will cost $5 per person and includes coffee and bottled water.
The festival is sponsored by the North Pacific Coast Marine Resources Committee, Washington Sea Grant and their partners.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
