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them to bring it to Hoboken to begin with. They turned the 2020 event into a fundraising film series, raising more than $20,000 for local organizations in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. “When we first screened some of the short films WSFF featured last year, the three of us found ourselves both inspired and moved to tears. We just knew our community would respond the same way,” Gettens says. “We live in Hoboken and want to invest in it. Main Street Pops truly cares about community, and pop-up events we have produced are designed to make an impact. The Wild & Scenic Film Festival fit that mold perfectly.” As life is getting closer to normal, so is this year’s WSFF, which through great film and food is delivering on Main Street Pops’s mission: to support local arts, create a stronger sense of community, offer access to diverse voices and perspectives, and promote sustainable and responsible living. To learn more about each film go to WildAndScenicFilmFestival.org. For ticket prices and more information, visit MainSreetPops.com/wild-scenic-film-festivalon-tour-2021/ or see our calendar on page 32.
Wild & Scenic Film Festival Visits Hoboken April 24 and 25
Main Street Pops joins with local restaurants to take ‘dinner and a movie’ to new places.
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he California-based Wild & Scenic Film Festival (WSFF)—which captures the dramatic beauty of Mother Nature to celebrate her and inspire environmental activism—is coming to Hoboken April 24 and 25, as part of the festival’s 2021 national tour. This is the 19th year for the WSFF, and the second year that Main Street Pops, a women-owned pop-up programming company, has brought the festival to Hoboken— and they’re ready. They’ve distilled the multi-day festival into a curated weekend of breathtaking viewing (a Saturday evening event for general audiences, and a Sunday midday event for families) that can be watched streaming or within a 24-hour time frame as video on demand. Viewers in Hoboken and Jersey City can enhance the experience with dinner and/or brunch, prepared and delivered to their door by local restaurants Salt + Seed and Seven Valleys Persian Cuisine. Main Street Pops was ready last year too, when it was all set to host WSFF for the first time. But it wasn’t ready for COVID-19, which shut down live events everywhere— including WSFF in Hoboken—practically overnight. But Shan Gettens says she and fellow Main Street Pops co-founders Tracy Gavant and Zabrina Stoffel found a way to make the festival happen by taking it virtual. Even more important, they stayed true to the giving spirit of the festival, which is what caused 16
Hudson County
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Wild & Scenic Sponsors Main Street Pops brings the Wild & Scenic Film Festival to Hoboken with the support of the following local businesses:
