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Confluence Film Festival
Join the Academy of Natural Sciences for its third annual Confluence Film Festival.
A month-long environmental film series held each April in celebration of Earth Month, with screenings every Thursday evening. Presented in partnership with BlackStar Projects, cinéSPEAK, the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival and the Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival, Confluence 2026 showcases films that speak to this year’s theme, “Seeding the Future.”
With feature-length films, shorts and documentaries appropriate for adults, the festival is both a call to action and a loving reminder that we don’t have to simply react to the climate crisis; we can actively shape a more just and sustainable future. Rooted in tradition, wonder and possibility, Confluence invites audiences to imagine what’s next. Experience this powerful film program, hear from filmmakers, community organizations and advocates, and learn how you can support and imagine climate resilience for the next seven generations.
Academy Members receive a free Confluence tote bag. Show your membership card at check in to claim yours!
Students can receive $6 tickets available onsite with a valid ID.
This program is supported by The Arcadia Foundation.
April 23
5:30–8:30 p.m.
Programmed by PHLAFF (the Philadelphia Latino Arts and Film Festival)
Schedule of Events
5:30–6:30 p.m. Pre-screening gathering with organizational partners In Dino Hall, including food, music and advocacy organizations
6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Film Program
Hasta la Raíz
(2024, 15 min), a short historic fiction film by dir. Nuria Schettino González
In 1856, at a Mexican rancho in Los Angeles, a Tongva woman fights for her land and daughter when the ranchero’s wife leaves to defend her own land grant.
El Tren y la Península
(2023, 88 min), a documentary feature by dirs. Sky Richards and Andreas Kruger Foncerrada
The Train and the Peninsula is an intimate portrait of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula as the controversial railroad megaproject known as the “Maya Train” is being built. A cinematic journey along the projected route of the train takes us on an immersive and epic journey across the peninsula. Through the fascinating stories and reflections of its inhabitants, the documentary exposes the environmental and social consequences of the development model imposed in the region. The directors weave together a collective narrative through the incisive and transparent testimonies of the peninsula’s inhabitants and reveal a human landscape full of vitality and Mayan wisdom that exposes the clash between different ways of imagining progress.