Our festival was kicked off by a 2-day event on November 10 & 11, 2022. During these two days we had 4 film screenings, 2 panel discussions, a performance of the Houston band The Free Radicals and the official opening of our art exhibition in the UHCL Art Gallery The gallery space consisted of a Black Box Theater, several other screening spots throughout the gallery, as well as sustainability-related physical art, such as framed photographs, paintings, sculptures and a Virtual Reality installation. During the gallery exhibition opening on November 10, Houston-based artist Geraldina Wise painted a mural on the wall space outside the gallery. The mural (see banner above), which was created with much participation from UHCL students, is part of the larger Gulf Coast Mural project. The mural will remain for the foreseeable future and also has a GIS component which was created in collaboration with the UHCL Geography program under Dr. Jeff Lash and  which will be developed further in semesters to come. The gallery exhibition was open to the public from November 7 - December 9.  Our Black Box Theater adjacent to the gallery also had scheduled film screenings from November 28 - December 9. A Virtual Reality film was also shown in the UHCL Alfred R. Neuman's brand new VR space.

The films  & physical art pieces of our 2022 SSFF edition have been curated by Mary Magsamen, long-time curator at the Houston-based Aurora Picture Show, Michel Brims & Claudia Trujillo. The festival had submissions from over 40 countries and screened over 100 films and physical work from over 30 artists  The festival drew an audience of approximately 1500 people overall.

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Our festival partners with the Houston Citizens' Environmental Coalition (CEC), founded in 1971 to foster dialogue, education, and collaboration on environmental issues in the Houston / Gulf Coast region. It connects concerned citizens and community leaders with well over 100 diverse environmental organizations. CEC shares, supports, and enhances people's efforts and environmental advocacy.