Earlier this month in Puerto Plata and Sosúa, conservationists from all over the world gathered for the second annual Dominican Republic Environmental Film Fest.

My friend Asher Jay was lucky enough to make it to this year's festival, where she showed her Message in a Bottle exhibit on sustainability and the world's oceans.

The festival was open to the public, and hundreds of students and activists attended the art showings and film screenings. Asher says:

This festival seeds so many grassroots movements and empowers people from all walks of life to take responsibility for their own backyard and day to day actions. Personally I don't think it is about people hitting a point of saturation on current consumption habits, but realizing that such endless material appetite never leads to true satiation.

The festival featured full-length and short films. Check out the trailers to a few of the films they screened right here!

Surviving Progress

This film, scheduled to come out in October of this year, takes a look at human progress, how it's harmed us, and how we can take control to save ourselves.

Carbon for Water

We take ready access to clean water for granted, but in many parts of the world meeting water needs is a labor intensive effort. Carbon for Water documents how simple water filters changed lives in Western Province, Kenya.

Taste the Waste

We waste between 30 and 50 percent of the food we produce. This film delves into the causes and possible solutions to our world food waste problem.

Photos by Anne Casale, used with permission