Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, speaking at a screening of “Come Hell or High Water,” October 2014
Working Films is coordinating an Environmental Justice Film Tour (February 10–12) that features screenings and discussions of Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek at North Carolina colleges and universities. The events will connect faculty, students and local residents to issues of environmental justice. Filmmaker Leah Mahan will join discussions with educators and community leaders including Omega Wilson of West End Revitalization Association and David Caldwell of the Roger Eubanks Neighborhood Association.
Working Films launched its engagement work with Come Hell or High Water at a sneak preview screening at Power Shift in the fall of 2013. The nonprofit is a national, nonpartisan organization that builds partnerships between documentary media-makers, nonprofits, businesses, educators and advocates to advance community-based and policy solutions to social, economic, and environmental challenges. Working Films has been using the film in state-based efforts in Texas and North Carolina, to support coalition building, raise awareness and increase citizen involvement.
The upcoming tour grew out of screenings last fall in North and South Carolina. Working Films wrote about the response of local audiences to the Mississippi story in “An Organizing Tool for Environmental Justice In The South,” highlighting the discussions at the annual North Carolina Environmental Justice Summit and the Gullah/Geechee Seafood Festival in South Carolina:
“Given its accessibility, locality, humanity, and the ways in which it cuts to the core issues of environmental injustice and gives communities a chance to respond, Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek is becoming an important tool in the fights against environmental racism and land loss in the South.”
Full details on the North Carolina events can be found on the Working Films website.
February 10, 2015, 8pm
Warren Wilson College
Holden Auditorium, Holden Arts Center, Asheville, NC 28815
Screening and discussion hosted by the Office of the President and The Wilson Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity Office, in partnership with Working Films.
February 11, 2015 at 6 pm
Bennett College
Global Learning Center Auditorium, 521 Gorrell St., Greensboro, NC 27401
A Black History Month Program sponsored by the Division of Humanities at Bennett College and co-sponsored by Working Films and the NC League of Conservation Voters Foundation.
February 12, 2015 at 6pm
UNC-Chapel Hill
1301 McGavran-Greenberg Hall, School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27759
Hosted by the Institute for the Environment at UNC-CH and UNC-CH Department of Communication Studies, in partnership with the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic and Working Films.
