Surfing, composting and gauchos may seem like odd bedfellows, but each will be represented at a South Shore film festival March 27.

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival returns to Lake Tahoe for a ninth year next week.

The festival originated in Nevada City in 2003 and has expanded to dozens of venues across the country. The Tahoe tour stop represents the second-biggest fundraiser for South Lake Tahoe’s Sierra Nevada Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to conserving the “Range of Light.”

Thursday’s tour stop at MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa will feature 11 films, including a recently released time-lapse compilation of Lake Tahoe and at least one offering from South Lake Tahoe filmmaker Mikey Wier.

The festival will show a trailer of “Southern California Steelhead: Against All Odds,” Wier’s latest production looking at America’s most-endangered native fish.

“I’m not an angler, but it definitely makes me want to get out on the water and learn to fly fish,” said Sierra Nevada Alliance spokeswoman Taylor Fargo.

The festival stop also includes “Swing North,” an adventure-oriented piece with beautiful scenic and fly fishing shots that includes a strong conservation message, Fargo said. The film features Wier; Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia clothing; ex-pro skier Shane Anderson and fly-fishing guide Jason Hartwick.

Here’s a taste of some of the other films to be shown at this year’s festival:

One Day in Yosemite

On Tuesday, June 26, 2012, 30 filmmakers spread throughout Yosemite to document the national park and the people who work and play there. Its 15 minutes tell a deeply human story of one of America’s most famous wild places. Hikers, hang gliders, painters and cooks help create this unique portrait of one day in Yosemite.

Nordfor Sola (North of the Sun)

Inge Wegge and Jorn Ranum spent nine months of cold, Norwegian winter in the isolated and uninhabited bay of a remote, Arctic island by the coast of northern Norway, facing nothing but the vast Atlantic Ocean. There they built a cabin out of driftwood and other cast-off materials that washed up onshore and ate expired food the stores would otherwise have thrown away. But the boys brought with them two items of utmost importance: Their surfboards – perhaps their biggest motivation for the Arctic adventure. The remote bay holds a well-kept secret — some of the world’s finest surfing waves.

El Campo es Vida

Javier Vera is a 20-year-old, third generation gaucho living in the Aysen region of Chilean Patagonia, a region that has deteriorated significantly due to agricultural use by previous generations of gauchos. While maintaining a traditional gaucho lifestyle, Javier is one of many young locals working in conservation-based tourism initiatives across Patagonia that are serving as new models for conserving the region’s wild lands. Javier is not tempted by the lure of a faster-paced lifestyle and instead believes strongly in the joy and beauty of rural life. This is a portrait of a young man living a dichotomous life in one of the world’s last remaining truly wild places.

COMPOST-a-lujah!

Let’s face it: composting isn’t the most glamorous of topics or activities. It can be dirty, rotten and smelly, but it doesn’t have to be. Meet Linda Olsen – master composter. She gave her heart to composting and, in return, it gave her life. This short presents simple steps to reduce your waste while producing natural fertilizer for your garden.

A Brief History of the 5-Cent Bag Tax

Jack Green, head of the Department of the Environment, is on a mission to rid his city of its plastic bag scourge in this short film by DC-based DunkYourBagel, which promotes reusable bags to protect the environment.

source: http://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org