The San Pedro Film Festival features ‘eco’ documentaries, feature films and short films – Daily Breeze

The San Pedro Film Fest returns this weekend at the Terrace Starlight Cinemas on the Terraces in Rancho Palos Verdes and at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro.

Two days of running – Saturday and Sunday, November 2-3 – the event contains a mix of short recordings, eco-documentaries and longer films.

“Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot,” is Saturday’s feature film at the Terrace cinema, 28901 S. Western Ave. That film tells the story of how Shields, who once opened for The Rolling Stones and became one of the top attractions in the world, San Francisco, went from a teenager performing as a robot for the Hollywood Wax Museum to having a top-rated CBS variety show with his wife, Lorene Yarnell, in the 1970s.

Shields will be on hand for a question-and-answer session about the film, which is making its premiere in California.

Eco-documentaries offered Saturday (all programming begins at 1 p.m.) are:

• “A Call from the Wild”: Filmmaker Asgeir Helgestad documents the state of nature in his home country of Norway, where he has photographed all his life. From the lives of bees on his farm, to wild reindeer on the high mountains, to puffins at the ocean’s edge, he reveals the beauty of endangered nature and traces human actions responsible for its demise.
• “Designed by Disaster”: a personal and inspiring story about Danny, a passionate climber who faces a life-changing ordeal in the Dolomites. Danny is prompted to invent a revolutionary type of crampon, closing a critical safety gap in mountain travel. This invention not only transforms the outdoor industry, but also marks Danny’s journey of self-discovery and resilience. His return to the Dolomites decades later symbolizes his journey that has come full circle and brought the product he invented to the place where he almost lost his life.

Saturday’s short films, with post-screening Q&As with filmmakers, are “Purple Haze,” “I’m Not a Robot,” “Pure Blue,” “Spaghetti Western,” “Bomb Voyage,” “A Dash of Hope” , ‘Wabi -Sabi,” “Only worn once,” and “Evanescence.”

Other ecco doc shorts will be offered Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M White Drive, in San Pedro. Included are short films about the reintroduction of wolves in Colorado, fossils in Thailand and a baby killer whale named Hugo.