FENDING FOR THEMSELVES: The documentary feature “Stray,” directed by Elizabeth Lo, is part of the 2021 Princeton Environmental Film Festival.

The Princeton Environmental Film Festival, a signature Princeton Public Library event, is being presented virtually this year. Opening Tuesday, April 13, and running through Sunday, April 18, the 15th annual festival features a combination of nine short and nine feature-length documentary films with discussion sessions that include some of the filmmakers and other speakers.

The festival is under the direction of Susan Conlon and Kim Dorman, whose focus is to present films with local, regional, and international relevance.

“We have initiated a new platform to provide easy access to the films that allows streaming on demand,” said Conlon. “It allows us to share these dynamic, beautifully rendered films that take us far and wide around the world. We think this will especially impact and inspire people in a year that has kept us so close to home.”

Highlights, including new films by returning filmmakers Costa Boutsikaris, Ian Cheney, Jared Flesher, and Nathan Kensinger, include Stray, which follows three stray dogs as they embark on inconspicuous journeys through Turkish society; Playing with Sharks, directed by Sally Atkin, which profiles diver Valerie Taylor, a fearless marine maverick with a passion for sharks who had a role in the making of Jaws and is followed in the film to the age of 83; and The Long Coast, which illuminates the stories of Maine’s seafolk, those whose lives and livelihoods are inextricably connected to the ocean. This atmospheric film shows the beauty, intimacy, and uncertainty that coastal dwellers face in rooting their lives in the ocean, particularly as human actions — from overfishing, to aquaculture, to warming seas — confront Maine and its people with profound change.

For a complete schedule of films, visit princetonlibrary.org/peff.