Things sustainable, biodegradable, organic will be on the minds of moviegoers at Planet in Focus, the enviro-festival that celebrates creative work in science, industry and environmental art. The Toronto fest returns with its eighth edition Oct. 24-28, with shorts and features including The Islands Project from celebrated chef Michael Statlander.

Statlander stepped behind the camera to direct the doc, combining his passion for organic cooking with the coast of British Columbia.

‘I have a love affair with this part of the world,’ he says, in a telephone interview from his Eigensinn Farm restaurant in rural Ontario. ‘They’re on the frontier of food — equivalent to Californians — wine makers, fishermen and farmers pushing limits by selling bio-diesel in farmers markets and water buffalo farmers making mozzarella.’

His vision included a two-month road trip with his family, apprentices and crew across Canada in his bio-diesel and solar-powered bus, the Liberator.

The Islands Project highlights champions like artist William van Orden of Quadra Island, an advocate of endangered fish who makes replicas of sea creatures, and logging activist Harper Graham.

As they traveled, Statlander and his wife, Nobuyo, created dinners to ‘glorify the beauty and bounty of the earth’ — serving delicacies from nearby farms or waters. While floating on a platform in Cortes Island Harbour, the chef and four apprentices prepared an eight-course dinner of oysters, a sustainable seafood solution, while millions more lurked below.

What’s Statlander’s message? ‘For those who want to follow in my footsteps, walk softly and be gentle to the earth and it will be gentle to you,’ he says.

Planet in Focus opens with Edge of Eden: Living with Grizzlies, a feature doc by husband-and-wife team Jeff and Sue Turner. For more information see www.planetinfocus.org.