Among the more than 80 short- and full-length films screened in several venues during the BLUE Ocean Film Festival, some are bigger--in scope, funding and hype--than others. But those factors don't necessarily dictate the impact a film makes on a viewer. A random visit to Monterey Maritime and History Museum Saturday afternoon revealed one of the rewards of such a diverse and sprawling event as this--a hidden gem.

Joshua Cassidy's entry, Life by the Tide, screened as an Honorable Mention in the Emerging Filmmakers category, is a short film--seven minutes short--that zooms in magnifying glass-close on the small creatures of a tide pool. The audience for its only screening was similarly small--six people--but all may have been moved, in a way that belied the modest event, by the combined film and music poetry they witnessed.

The score is composed by Heather Vorwerck, playing cello on two tracks that overlap, one laying down a sustained, drone-like foundation to a more sprightly counterpoint.

There is no narration. Instead, the atmospheric sounds of tinkling water and crashing waves accompanies the images, shot at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve at Moss Beach near Half Moon Bay, of the giant green anemone, purple shore crabs, black turban snails, hermit crabs and the creeping, glistening bat star (starfish) that closes the film.

They're not the fantastical creatures of the deep or the enormous open ocean cruisers like whale sharks. They are the little guys who live in accessible tidepools, at the conjunction of land and sea. And Cassidy's indulgently patient treatment of their inconspicuous lives is admirably respectful, langorous, curious and peaceful--a meditation on their movement, interspersed with wide shots of the shorescape.

The film, Cassidy's first, has no overt agenda. It's just a fresh, artistic gaze at sea creatures we may take for granted for their ubiquity and seemingly uneventful existence.

After the too-brief reverie, Cassidy--who has a bachelors degree in Wildlife Biology, and is finishing an MFA in Science and Natural History Filmmaking from Montana State as well as an intership at KQED's Quest, talked about nature films, BLUE, and the role of upstart filmmakers in the bigger picture.

"I learned how to use a camera on this film," he said, sitting on a couch in what would later serve as the beer garden for the BLUE Carpet Gala afterparty at the Maritime Museum. "I picked subjects that wouldn't run away. I thought I was going to make a David Attenborough film, though I tried to make it more poetic...not the three-part story structure. Nature doesn't have a [three-part story structure]."

He went to the tidepools to shoot 16 times in 2004 with a "prosumer" (professional consumer) videocamera. One session, of the bat starfish, took 45 minutes to track the creature sinking itself into the water. In the finished product, the starfish gets about two minutes of screen time.

"The best shots didn't make [the film] because it didn't flow."

Cassidy says that Europeans seem more attuned to his meditation on tidepool life, especially French people because, he postulates, European audiences are more patient and appreciative of artistry. But he acknowleges the value of sensational filmmaking.

"People surfing channels will stop if someone [on TV] is getting attacked by a bear."

"A lot of big projects are in danger of losing their heart," he says, abstaining from naming names. "The little film, when someone pours their heart into it, is the basis for the industry. Not celebrity pets or the lowest common denominator."

Cassidy says he's currently "looking for a home" for Life by the Tide, which won Best Amateur and Best Music Video categories at the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival in February.

"[San Francisco Ocean Film Festival] is much smaller but older than BLUE. It's tighter knit and less industry...The Cousteaus and Sylvia Earle are recognized at other festivals, but they actually attend [BLUE]."

He says that young nature filmmakers bring fresh ideas to the bigger conversation, but that they need more access to big nature film festivals like Wild Screen in Bristol, England, and Jackson Hole in Wyoming.

"I paid 300 dollars to submit to the 2009 International Wildlife Film Festival and they sent a very polite rejection letter.'"

Another side of filmmaking he's working on is the financial.

"I'm not so good at business. I'm not much of a salesman. I'm up to my knees in mud trying to get a frog to smile at [my camera]. But I'm trying to gain confidence to sell. Nobody's going to hand me 100 thousand dollars to make a film."

Not yet, at least. Not until he can get key peope to see, and believe in, Life in the Tide.

"At work, [producers] are too busy to see you. Here, I can catch them with a glass of wine in their hand, in a relaxed environment."

To make more films and to get funding, Life by the Tide is, literally, his calling card. He was carrying DVD copies of the film to hand out to people like the Cousteaus and Earle and producers, to put a face to the name and contact info written on the discs.

That part of his role would play out at the BLUE Carpet Gala afterparty, which would start up later in the evening, in the same spot in which his evocative little film went largely unseen. Cassidy's job at the party will be to ensure it gets seen--and by the right people.