The Missouri River Relief barge featured in "Big Muddy Clean Sweep" leaves Hermann, Mo., after holding a clean-up there. Photo courtesy of Alicia Pigg.

A film festival is coming to Columbia. No, I’m not talking about True/False. This is a different sort of film festival. You could even say it’s a little wild.

This Saturday, the traveling Wild & Scenic Film Festival, based out of Nevada City, Calif., will make a stop at The Blue Note from 2-5 p.m. Hosted by and benefitting the Missouri River Relief, the local screening will feature about three hours of environmental films.

Doors will open at 1 p.m., and a silent auction will follow the documentaries. You can return at 9 p.m. to hear One More Round, a Johnny Cash cover band from St. Louis, free with your $8 film festival ticket stub.

The festival, coming to Columbia for the second time, aims to provide diversity in tone and subject matter, says Steve Schnarr, Missouri River Relief Program Manager. The main purpose of the festival is to provide awareness and help local organizations reach out within their communities. With a total of eight short films, most of which are shown in various cities for the national festival, content includes whales, windmills, water purification and the effects of plastic on our planet.

But one 15-minute film, of particular significance to Missouri River Relief, is making its debut. Big Muddy Clean Sweep, directed by local filmmaker Jodi Pfefferkorn, documents the organization’s barge river clean-up across the state of Missouri during fall 2011.

This project commemorated Missouri River Relief’s 10-year anniversary: 10 years of attracting more than 16,000 volunteers out to the river to pick up more than 1 million pounds of trash.

“The reason everybody’s involved is because we love the river,” Schnarr says.

To make the film, Pfefferkorn joined the barge that would live on the river for six weeks and travel to six riverside Missouri cities and towns from Jefferson City to St. Louis, where the organization would hold clean-ups and education events. She hopes that after cleaning up trash for 72 hours, the 75-300 volunteers from each of the cities would think twice before again muddying their river and their water.

“The barge was so successful that we want to do the upper part of the Missouri River this year,” she says. “Start in Sioux City, Ia., and go to Kansas City.”

Big Muddy Clean Sweep and the other films featured in the festival seek a common goal of illustrating environmental challenges and ways to combat them. Locally sponsored by the Alpine Shop and The Blue Note, Wild & Scenic Film Festival offers viewers the chance to see how nature can impact film – and how film can impact nature.

Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. They can be purchased through Ticketfly, at The Blue Note box office or by calling and reserving your tickets at The Blue Note: 573-874-1944 ($1 charge). There is a $2 discount for showing a student ID at The Blue Note box office. Kids age 8 and under are free.