A wilderness conservation film festival reflects many points of view.

The Wild and Scenic Film Festival has been around for 16 years. It was started by the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL, pronounced “circle”), folks who came together in 1983 to oppose two dams on the South Yuba River, near Nevada City, California. Not only did they defeat the dams, but they got 39 miles of the river designated as Wild and Scenic by the state.

Hence the name of the film festival they started to propagate their message of activism, addressing issues like energy, climate change, biodiversity, wilderness and more. And they concocted an annual traveling version. That’s where Mike Splain and the Ventana Wilderness Alliance, of which he’s the executive director, came in.

“About six years ago, VWA realized we were essentially preaching to the choir of a couple-hundred Big Sur backcountry devotees,” Splain says. “We love our loyal members, but we needed to reach folks throughout the Monterey Bay area and beyond to rally them to the cause.”

So they signed on as a presenter, attending the big festival in Nevada City to pick out which films they would bring here. Other similarly themed films festivals come round this way, including the Banff Mountain Film Festival and the Reel Rock Film Festival, but Splain says conservation and activism are more in the foreground at Wild and Scenic.

He points to the 13-minute film Life Coach, in which Alex Honnold films himself and Renan Ozturk climbing Mt. Dickey in Alaska’s remote Ruth Gorge while reflecting on climbing, life, themselves and each other. It’s a bit like a selfie video. Except Ozturk is a thoughtful guy. He films locals in the remote villages he travels through on his way to mountaineering, and learns about their lives.

“Somewhere along the way, I got a chance to tell other people’s stories, instead of my own,” Ozturk tells the camera.

His buddy Honnold comes across as a jackass.

“Under no circumstances would I go to the Congo. What a waste of fitness,” Honnold says. “I’ll never be a good climber if I go hang out in goldmines in the Congo. Renan has easily made that sacrifice because he cares about telling that story.”

Honnold makes fun of Ozturk, whose mountain-climbing skills are lagging because he’s not as single-minded about it – but Honnold, the filmmaker, ends up looking like the joke.

Wild Owyhee focuses on a chunk of Oregon wilderness known as the Owyhee that’s defined as “the largest intact, unprotected natural area in the lower 48 states.”

The film gathers interviews with a cross-section of people who enjoy its vast, wild terrain of gullies, rock towers, plains, sagebrush and rivers, including a fly fisherman, a resident, a cross-country runner, birders, an explorer, a conservationist.

They talk about the place with poetic wistfulness, navigating a precarious endeavor: They want official preservation to protect it – not just from exploitation, but also from over-popularity due to its own beauty. But making a film about it risks attracting more people, threatening the pristine remoteness. Big Sur faces a similar dilemma.

Loved by All: The Story of Apa Sherpa by Eric Crosland has profound passages. It’s narrated by Apa Sherpa, born in the Khumbu Valley of Nepal, which he calls “one of Earth’s treasures,” but also attributes to it a hard life for its rural residents.

His father died when he was 12, so he felt compelled to leave school and go to work to support his family. He became a guide to foreigners who aspired to climb in the Himalayas. He has since summited Mt. Everest 21 times. He’s seen many friends die doing that work.

“The true beauty of Nepal isn’t the mountains,” he says. “But the people who live in their shadow.”

And it’s a defining statement following 2014 and 2015, two of the most disastrous and deadly years for Sherpas. Apa Sherpa founded a school for kids in rural Nepal so that they can have more choices, instead of being compelled to do guide work for foreigners – some of the most treacherous jobs on the planet.

A Letter to Congress aims for inspiration, with shots of camping, rain, vistas and trees, scored by frogs, thunderstorms and birdsong as a backdrop to Wallace Stegner reading his influential 1960 manifesto known as the “Wilderness Letter.” But the last shot – a supertitle that reads “Hipcamp.com/action” – reveals it to be a promo piece for the San Francisco online travel service site HipCamp.com. It’s more advertising than activism.

There is redemption. Lost in Light is a simple – almost experimental – survey of light pollution in various outdoor destinations like Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Crater Lake and Lassen National Park. With each lowering of atmospheric light, the stars and Milky Way appear brighter and closer in the enveloping darkness. Kind of like a film screening, you could say.

WILD AND SENIC FILM FESTIVAL is 7pm Saturday, Sept. 22 (5pm doors open), at Golden State Theatre, 417 Alvarado St., Monterey. $25/advance; $30/door. 423-3191, ventanawild.org.