The Alaska Ocean Film Festival, showing at the Homer Theater tonight at 6, offers plenty of connections with nature in a non-threatening format. Besides that, it's the perfect way to kick-start Homer's Winter Carnival.

From Beaufort Sea's polar bears to South Africa's white sharks; from Puget Sound's sea slugs to Alaska's love affair with salmon. To use a familiar phrase, there's something for everyone.

"We go to lots of different places that are not necessarily on the water, but everyone has an ocean story about how they were affected at some point," said Butch Allen, oceans coordinator and film festival director for the Alaska Center for the Environment. "You can find a connection to the ocean without looking very far."

Collaborating with the San Francisco Ocean Festival, films of different lengths -- from one to 54 minutes -- have been selected. About half of the films included in the festival were created by Alaska filmmakers. One of them is "Ice Bears of the Beaufort," a 10-minute film by Art C. Smith III.

"It's an amazing piece. The cinematography is just bears being bears," Allen said. "(Smith) lets them do the talking for themselves. ... He lives up there around (the bears) and has a unique opportunity to capture them on film as opposed to film crews going in for a week or two at a time."

Smith's original version of the film was feature-length, but Smith had him cut it down specifically for festival audiences.

"White Shark Behavior," by Skyler Thomas, focuses on unusual interaction between the sharks and humans in waters off South Africa.

"It's a good look at behavior-based science," Allen said. "There's some interactions, with people rubbing sharks noses that you normally associate more with dolphins."

Partnered with it is "Rethink the Shark," a short one-minute presentation that challenges myths about sharks. It was created by Save our Seas Foundation as a public service announcement to separate fact from fiction.

"Silent Snow" brings Greenland to the forefront.

"It's our highlight foreign film," Allen said. "There's crazy, incredible, jaw-dropping cinematography. The topic addresses a world pollution issue I didn't really know much about ... I think Alaskans can really relate."

In all, there are 10 films. Most of them are new to Homer. One exception is "Red Gold," a 54-minute film in which Ben Knight, Travis Rummel and Lauren Oakes take their cameras to the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

"It has an obvious undercurrent being about Pebble mine, but people will walk away teary-eyed," Allen said. "It really captures the Alaska fishing culture. Even though it's longer than usual, I didn't want to leave it out. It's so well done."

"Red Gold" is placed at the end of the evening's program so those who viewed it during an earlier showing in Homer can enjoy it again after seeing the festival's other films.

This is the fifth ocean film festival created by the Alaska Center for the Environment and the fourth time it has visited Homer.

"The winter carnival is a great anchor to get it going," Allen said of the festival's Thursday night showing.

From here, the festival plays in Soldotna on Friday and Seward on Saturday.

It began the 2009 season in Talkeetna, drawing in a large crowd and a positive response.

"One thing that was really exciting is when we informally polled the audience about what they liked best and everyone had different answers," Allen said. "We try to include something for everyone."

Admission for the Alaska Ocean Film Festival is $10 or $5 for seniors, students and children.

Tickets are being presold at Homer Bookstore and Homer Theatre.

To learn more about Alaska Center for the Environment and the Alaska Ocean Film Festival, visit the Web at www.akcenter.org.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.