Reel Power collaborating film Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek will host it’s D.C. premiere at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker, the film’s protagonist, Derrick Evans, and special guests Brentin Mock, regular Grist contributor; Reilly Morse, president of the Mississippi Center for Justice; and Leslie Fields, national environmental justice director at the Sierra Club. The discussion will focus on social and environmental justice challenges on the Gulf Coast and will include frontline community leaders working for change through strategic alliances and the use of independent media.
If you’re in the area, please join us!
Sunday, March 30th, 2014
4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Carnegie Institution for Science
1530 P St NW, Washington, DC 20005
Free tickets: http://comehellorhighwater.bpt.me/
THE PANELISTS
Derrick Evans is director of Turkey Creek Community Initiatives and a managing advisor to the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health. Before returning to his native coastal Mississippi community he taught for many years in the Boston Public Schools.
Leslie Fields is national environmental justice director at the Sierra Club. She teaches international environmental law at Howard University and serves as a Commissioner on the Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies’ Commission to Engage African Americans on Energy, Climate and the Environment.
Leah Mahan is an independent filmmaker. She spent a dozen years making Come Hell or High Water and was invited to work on the rough cut at the Sundance Institute Documentary Editing and Story Lab. Her first film was Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street.
Brentin Mock writes regularly for Grist about the connections between environmental policy, race, and politics. He was lead reporter on Voting Rights Watch, a reporting partnership between Colorlines and The Nation. Before moving to D.C., he worked from New Orleans with The Lens and Bridge the Gulf.
Reilly Morse is president of the Mississippi Center for Justice. He worked for many years with grassroots leaders in the Turkey Creek watershed and collaborated with the Sierra Club and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights on legal strategies.
Come Hell or High Water held its national premiere at the New Orleans Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Documentary Feature. It will broadcast on PBS’ America ReFramed on April 29th. This date was just chosen, so stay tuned for more details. The community media site Bridge the Gulf places the Turkey Creek story in a broader context, connecting viewers to a network of Gulf Coast community journalists with deep roots in diverse communities and fields who report on pressing social and environmental issues. A redesign of the site will be launched in March and celebrated at the Washington, D.C. film premiere.
