Together we can change the story of the Gulf Coast

A BETA VERSION OF BRIDGETHEGULFPROJECT.ORG LAUNCHED IN AUGUST

CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES ON THE PROJECT

WHAT

Community leaders and media artists are working together to build an interactive Web site featuring grassroots stories from the Gulf Coast.

Bridge the Gulf provides support for media projects made by and about Gulf Coast communities working on issues of cultural survival, environmental justice and sustainable development. In collaboration with local media makers, grassroots leaders and groups will create media projects to share our stories, support our work and advance our common goals. Bridge the Gulf will present these stories on a Web-based interactive map that links our stories regionally and shares them with a national audience.

WHEN

Feb. 26 & 27, 2010 - Interviews were videotaped with members of the Gulf Coast Sustainable Communities Network (SCN), a braintrust of grassroots leaders coordinated by the Institute for Sustainable Communities. The video footage was provided to the interviewees, the network and Bridge the Gulf. Here is a clip from the interview with Monica Cooper-Battle of Moss Point Main Street:

To view more excerpts from these interviews: CLICK ON THIS LINK.

March 24, 2010 - Interviews were videotaped with advisors to the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health (GCF) during the Katrina @ 5: Partners in Philanthropy convening in New Orleans. GCF is a key partner in developing Bridge the Gulf, and is led by an Advisory Group made up of a cross-section of community leaders from Florida to Texas. Here is a clip from the interview with Elodia Blanco of Concerned Citizens of the Agriculture Street Superfund Site:

April 2010 - Grantees of the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health and members of SCN began working with local  media artists to create Watershed Stories – short videos, photo essays or podcasts that can be shared on the Web, distributed on DVD and posted on The Bridge Project interactive map. Here is a clip from one of the media artists, Melissa Woods of New Orleans Video Voices:

To hear from more Gulf Coast media artists who are working with community groups on these projects: CLICK ON THIS LINK.

May 28 - June 6, 2010 - Bridge the Gulf Web site was workshopped at the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies at the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) in San Francisco. Leah Mahan and representatives of the Gulf Coast Fund worked with technology experts from Free Range Studios and MIG to connect Bridge the Gulf Project library of digital stories to interactive maps of the Gulf Coast.

August 2010 - Bridge the Gulf Web site launched and became a vital resource to diverse fishing communities documenting the impact of the BP disaster. Videos and blog posts from emerging citizen journalists and established media makers provided a snapshot of the Gulf Coast five years after Hurricane Katrina. National environmental organizations including the Natural Resources Defense Council and Green for All shared content and cross-posted stories on the Huffington Post. In the coming months a second phase of the Web site will be developed and community groups will be invited to contribute their own content to the interactive map as we continue to build a shared resource and explore its potential to support positive change.

WHY

Bridge the Gulf grew out of the documentary TURKEY CREEK, about a resilient Mississippi community fighting to preserve its ancestral land and way of life, before and after Hurricane Katrina. The filmmaker met leaders from many other Gulf Coast communities with urgent stories to tell. The project was created to help these organizations bring their collective stories to a wider audience. The national distribution of TURKEY CREEK will bring attention to Bridge the Gulf Project and the stories of people working every day for a brighter future. The project is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Human rights activist and actor Danny Glover and community development specialist Gus Newport are advisors to the project.