“It’s always an adventure” — Nick Mollé’s legacy lives on through the Estes Park Environmental Film Festival

This year’s Estes Park Environmental Film Festival honored local nature documentary filmmaker Nick Mollé, who recently passed away.

KGNU’s Sage Sanford was there, and he brings us this story.

 Nick Mollé, among many other things, was an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. His films brought the beauty of the outdoors to audiences on PBS and beyond. He passed away this March at the age of 79.

One of Nick’s daughters, Claire Mollé, said, “It’s a little bit different not having Nick here this year, but it’s been a great energy, and it kind of feels like he’s here with us. She grew up watching her dad film and edit his wildlife documentaries. She’s carrying on the family legacy as CEO of the Rocky Mountain Channel. She helped organize this festival.

“Our whole mission here at the Rocky Mountain Channel and Nick Mollé Productions is conservation through education. We’re at a point in the world where we all know that we have to make a difference for our environment and for our public lands. And we believe that with our talents here, the best that we can do is telling people how they can make a difference through education and through our filmmaking, and with our images and music, and just really using that place of inspiration to make a difference.”

When you watch these films, you’re transported to another place. But even more than that, you feel connected to that place. That’s the magic of Nick Mollé.

Claire said, “Every single movie and piece that he made was about science and making sure that he got the best information that he could and communicated it in the best way possible. He used his voice and his talents to educate people, but I think he did it in a really special way because he was so talented with his writing and his voice and his charisma on camera that it had a really impactful way of educating people. We can let nature take its course and accept the consequences, but must we accept the irresponsible implications of accelerated human indulgence with no regard for destruction?”

The Festival started in 2024, making this its third year. Claire says they started small, but the goal for the film festival is to continue bringing more films from more filmmakers in Colorado, and possibly even more places around the region, focusing on environmentalism or bringing attention to public lands and natural spaces.

Claire said, “This year our whole team has had a lot of challenges with losing Nick. We had some big dreams for this year, and we weren’t quite able to execute them in the way that we wanted to. But I do think that we’ll be able to make it bigger next year. In 2024, it began with an idea for promoting Earth Day and bringing something to Estes Park that would bring environmental inspiration around Earth Day and bring people together in April, a time that there’s not a whole lot going on in Estes Park.”

A mix of locals and out-of-towners filled the historic Park Theater in downtown Estes for the festival.

One attendee said, “I love environmental science, I love watching environmental films, documentaries, or anything like that. So I’m excited to be here.”

A series called Music in Wild Places debuted at the festival. Its director, John Berry, said, “It’s where I take musicians up in the mountains here and have them perform their original music, and I interview them and have them tell their story. And I kinda turn it into, like, a short film followed by their entire performance. I feel more at peace when I’m by the water. The sound of the water, a babbling brook going by. This is my church. This is where I feel calm.”

Berry got the idea for the series last summer on a trip in Colorado’s wilderness.

He said, “I think music is like a universal language that everybody feels something from if it, if they connect with it. And I think music could be, with my series, that could be a really good olive branch to somebody who might be skeptical about, ‘Well, I don’t need to practice Leave No Trace,’ I would hope they would feel something by watching these in a, in a positive way, and be like, ‘Wow, this is a place we need to be proactive about protecting.'”

The festival ended with a special preview of Nick’s last film. It’s the second film in a series of documentaries about water. It follows the Colorado River across the American West to explore its ecosystems, communities, and environmental challenges.

Sean Dougherty worked with Nick to make this film. He said, “This was his (Mollé) last, I think, gift to us. It’s called Stream of Conscience, and it’s the most daunting film, daunting project we’ve ever had. The Colorado River covers seven states, serves 30 tribes, and right now it’s not doing too well, and so that’s what we’re gonna be talking about, and also talking about how we can heal this river. Nick always likes to focus on in his documentaries — I’m not used to using past tense because he only passed away two months ago — but he always likes to focus on science, art, and philosophy. That’s what we’re gonna try to focus on in this film.”

After the preview, there was a Q&A with Sean and others. They discussed the film and closed the evening by sharing personal stories about Nick.

Sean said, “Nick came to me a year ago after we released ‘Water: The Sacred Gift’ and said, ‘Sean, let’s go to Moab. We’re gonna start my next project about the Colorado River.’ On this trip, I was just constantly filming Nick. Thank God I did. And I got a lot of great footage on that road trip. I said to him, Oh, we’re gonna wake up at 3:00 in the morning tomorrow to go to this overlook, Dead Horse State Park overlook, because I want to film a sunrise.’ He looked at me like, ‘Boy, are you crazy?'”

When asked about carrying Nick’s legacy, his daughter Claire said, “Having just lost my biggest mentor and inspiration, I feel this huge amount of imposter syndrome and fear of how, oh my gosh, how am I going to do this? I’m driven by this responsibility and this sense of, well, what do I want to accomplish and what do we need to do? What’s the bigger task at hand, and what is driving my heart? What do I wanna tell the world today? That’s kind of how I’m trying to proceed right now in trying to fill my dad’s footsteps. I know that he instilled in me his legacy, so I just try to follow my heart the best that I can and hope that I will be living his legacy.”

This story aired on the Morning Magazine, KGNU’s weekday morning show featuring in-depth discussions on local news issues. Click here to listen to other episodes of the Morning Magazine.