FHFF Best of the Fest Double Feature: "Checkpoint Zoo" and "Lina"

Join us for a powerful evening of documentary film and conversation! Friday Harbor Film Festival’s 2026 Best of the Fest Series kicks off with a free double feature screening of Checkpoint Zoo, winner of the 2025 FHFF Audience Choice Award for Best Overall Documentary, and Lina, winner of the 2025 FHFF Audience Choice Award for Best Overall Short Film, showing at San Juan Island Library.

A meet and greet with Lina filmmaker Silke Johnstone will begin at 6 pm, followed by the films at 6:30. Immediately following the screenings, Silke Johnstone will lead an interactive Q&A. Don’t miss the chance to learn more about the filmmaking process, the real-life events that inspired the films, and the situation in Ukraine. Details are available at fhff.org.

Checkpoint Zoo documents a daring rescue, led by a heroic team of zookeepers and volunteers, who risked their lives to save thousands of animals trapped in a zoo behind enemy lines in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. In the early days of the Russian Ukrainian war Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, was turned into a warzone. On one side of the battlefield was the invading Russian army, on the other side, the defending Ukrainians, and caught in between them, was a zoo called Feldman Ecopark. More than just a zoo, Feldman Ecopark was an animal sanctuary that offered countless therapy programs to everyone from soldiers with PTSD to children with special needs. Drawing from first-hand footage, Award-winning filmmaker Joshua Zeman’s Checkpoint Zoo showcases a story of human compassion, bravery, and sacrifice during Ukraine’s darkest hours. shining a light on the best of humanity when it is all too easy to focus on the worst.

Lina – With a warm, strong and confident voice forty-one-year-old mother Alyona tells the story of her beautiful youngest daughter Lina who together with her family flees the brutal grip of Russian occupation in Kherson. With the help of courageous volunteers, the family travels thousands of miles through hostile Russian territory before finally finding refuge and the idea of peace in a charming village in Ukraine. Yet, the sense of normalcy is deceiving, and the audience witnesses the cruel scars that this war has left on Lina and the emotional breakdown of Alyona as she is confronted with the reality that Lina faces.

This event is FREE and open to the public. No tickets or reservations needed.