My life as a mother and a documentary filmmaker sometimes seems like a film that’s out of sync. But there was a wonderful moment this summer when everything clicked. I had been invited to bring the rough cut of my Turkey Creek documentary to the Sundance Documentary Editing and Story Lab but considered declining the invitation because [...]

(Cross-posted from Leah’s blog on Bridge the Gulf) When I heard that The Daily Show was sending one of its “correspondents” to Turkey Creek (in coastal Gulfport, Mississippi), I tried to imagine how a brief satirical “news” segment might shed light on a story I take seriously, and one that I’ve been documenting on video for [...]

We’ve been working toward the launch of bridgethegulfproject.org for many months and the BP oil disaster has added new urgency to the project. It’s a new media storytelling initiative promoting cultural survival, environmental justice, and sustainable development in Gulf Coast Communities. The project is the result of a collaboration between the Turkey Creek Film Project and the Gulf Coast Fund for [...]

NRDC President Frances Beinecke spent time last week on the Gulf Coast with Turkey Creek’s Derrick Evans and other advisors and grantees of the Gulf Coast Fund to learn about how the BP disaster is impacting coastal communities. She wrote about her observations in an article titled “Voice Off the Bayou” on her blog: “… Still [...]

Last week I witnessed the sense of dread felt by Gulf Coast communities as the oil spill approached. I was in Gulfport, Miss., shooting footage for my Turkey Creek documentary. Derrick Evans, Rose Johnson and other environmental justice activists working in the Turkey Creek watershed were meeting with officials at the state and federal level on an entirely different [...]

My trusty Google alert sent today’s USA Today story that features Turkey Creek. The photo of Derrick Evans in front of his great-grandfather’s house made me think of this one I took a few days after Hurricane Katrina. Derrick and friends from Boston had organized a caravan of relief supplies, and I flew to Birmingham [...]

The Bridge Project will be highlighted March 22 in the opening plenary of Katrina @ 5: Partners in Philanthropy, a special convening of the philanthropic community, nearly five years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, to explore the lessons of response, rebuilding, and transformation in the Gulf Coast, and how they apply to communities around the country. [...]

My last post was about the community activists and leaders I interviewed during a meeting of the Gulf Coast Sustainable Communities Network. As I listened to these interviews I was reminded of these comments by Lisa Jackson, U.S. EPA Administrator, at an Environmental Justice Town Hall Meeting in January. A cameraman for my documentary TURKEY CREEK videotaped [...]

This weekend in Moss Point, Mississippi, I videotaped interviews with sixteen community leaders and activists from coastal Alabama (Coden), Louisiana (Terrebonne and Lafourche Parish) and Mississippi (East Biloxi, Lucedale and Moss Point). Excerpts from these interviews will be posted on an interactive map of the Gulf Coast on The Bridge Project Website, which is in [...]

THE BRIDGE PROJECT, a digital initiative that grew out of the TURKEY CREEK documentary, will be in Moss Point Feb. 26 & 27, 2010. Video interviews will be recorded with members of the Gulf Coast Sustainable Communities Network (SCN). The video footage will be provided to the interviewees, the network and The Bridge Project. Excerpts of [...]