Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast of Louisiana. Five years later, the Deepwater Horizon exploded and spilled more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the worst ecologic disaster in North American history. Amazingly, those aren’t the worst things facing Louisiana’s coastline today. It is that the state is fast disappearing through coastal erosion caused largely by oil and gas industry activity.
A follow-up to the 2010 film SoLa: Louisiana Water Stories, this new film introduces us to some of the spill’s most aggrieved victims, as well as those who are desperately trying to save its coastline. Writer and historian John Barry, who launched a suit against 97 oil and gas companies, attempted to get them to pay their fair share for reparations caused by their explorations. Consultant and native son James Carville manages to find some hope in new technologies that may save the coast. And Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, the man who saved New Orleans post-Katrina, has a new passion for a Green Army he has recruited.
Fishermen, scientists, politicians, environmentalists and oil-rig workers document how the coast of Louisiana has changed. What really happened to all that oil? What about the dispersant used to push it beneath the surface? How has the spill impacted local economies, as well as human health and the health of both marine life and the Gulf itself? How much resilience is left in the people and coastline? After the Spill seeks to answer these questions.
Presented as part of our ongoing Environmental Film Series, through the partnership of the Havre de Grace Green Team and Havre de Grace Maritime Museum. All film screenings are free to the public, and are held inside the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum’s main gallery. A discussion will follow the film.
