Join us for a six-day camping adventure on beautiful Sucia Island in the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest! The entire island is an uninhabitted, Washingtone State Park. It is one of the loveliest spots in the San Juan Islands, and the Handmade Film Institute is excited to offer our 2026 Pacific Northwest Film Camp there! The island features facinating rock formations, beaches, forests, and fossil beds that have yielded Washington State's only dinosaur bones!

This is a change from our previous years' offerings on Orcas Island. There will be minimal facilities -- restrooms, picnic tables, a shelter for cooking -- but no indoor lodging. The week will share many of the methodologies and practices developed for the Wilderness Film Expedition, but in a marine environment. We will use non-toxic, zero-emissions techniques, and adapt our film practice to the location; we will be working in black and white and a selection of alternative processes that can be done safely like cyanotype and phytograms, as well as basic emulsion-making. As before, we will focus throughout on two broad issues: understanding 16mm celluloid film as a hands-on artistic medium, from its chemistry to its practical applications, and exploring how filmmaking can relate to the environs of the San Juan Islands. We will study in depth how photochemical film works. From this knowledge, we will address, on the one hand, the standard commercial materials and processes and how to use and manipulate them, and, on the other, how to create our own materials and processes, as well as places and ways to work. We will project films on location, under the stars.

We will be working in 16mm, and will have a Bolex camera to share, pinhole cameras, and a Bell and Howell Underwater camera. Please feel free to bring Your Own Camera, if you have one!. All chemistry will be provided, as well as standard film stocks (Kodak 3378 Sound Track Film, 3302 B+W print Stock, and Double X Negative). We will have poratble, low- or no-power processing, printing, editing, and projection equipment, developed over the years for the Wilderness Film Expedition. We will also have a sound recorder and microphones, etc., so that we can add sound to our creations.

Participants need not supply cooking gear, but must bring their own personal camping gear. Please contact us if you are missing some piece of equipment or have any questions.

This retreat takes place on the beautiful and uninhabited Sucia Island, Washington. The camp begins on the morning of May 27th at West Beach Resort on Orcas Island, where we will gather to take a small boat to Sucia Island. We will camp for six days and five nights on this remote island, with the boat returning us to Orcas Island on the afternoon of June 1st. Please note that there is no internet service once we leave Orcas Island, and cell service can be spotty. Please plan accordingly!

Participants are responsible for meals and reserving lodging on Orcas Island before and after the Sucia Island trip, and are encouraged to make any necessary arangements as soon as possible so as to ensure availability. We will be staying at West Beach Resort the nights before and after, and recommend it. They offer many lodging options from camping to cabin rental, and is extremely convenient as the boat leaves from there! Please reach out to us for guidance if neccessary.

Meals are an integral part of the experience on Sucia, and will be prepared on-site by our amazing chef, Cynthia Sliker. All the food is vegan and as local as possible. Optionally, we may include some local seafood if we decide to catch it ourselves. If you have any dietary restrictions, please let us know as soon as possible! We are happy to work with you. This is especially important, because we will only have what we bring with us!

Registration: $950 full / $850 students

The workshop cost includes film, film equipment and chemistry, classes, and class materials. Camping and food on Sucia Island are included, as is transportation between Orcas to Sucia. Transportation to and from Orcas Island and expenses on Orcas Island (for lodging or food before or after the Sucia trip) are not included.

We will pick you up on Orcas Island at either the ferry terminal or float plane dock and bring you to our staging area, West Beach Resort on Orcas Island.

If you fly into Seattle, then take the Belair Shuttle to the Anacortes ferry terminal, and get on a ferry to Orcas island (Note that schedule changes on June 14th...). Please check schedules and fares at the links above and see what works. You might also considder renting a car at the airport; sometimes this is more cost effective than the bus, particularly if you can car pool with another participant.

Alternatively, you can fly directly to Orcas Island by float plane on Kenmore Air to West Sound or Rosario (which is beautiful, but much more expensive).

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