{"id":723,"date":"2014-04-21T13:54:39","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T13:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leahmahan.com\/comehellorhighwater\/?p=723"},"modified":"2014-04-21T13:54:39","modified_gmt":"2014-04-21T13:54:39","slug":"april-29-world-broadcast-online-premiere-live-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leahmahan.com\/comehellorhighwater\/2014\/04\/21\/april-29-world-broadcast-online-premiere-live-chat\/","title":{"rendered":"April 29 Broadcast, Online Premiere and Live Chat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"102429_turkey_SAW\"<\/a><\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek<\/i>\u00a0follows the journey of Derrick Evans, who moves home to Mississippi\u2019s Gulf Coast when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport. The documentary will air on WORLD Channel\u2019s series\u00a0<\/span>America Reframed<\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/i>on April 29, 2014 (8 p.m. ET \/ 7 p.m. CT \/ 5 p.m. PT) and the broadcast will be followed by a half-hour discussion between series host Natasha Del Toro, Derrick Evans and journalist Brentin Mock. The\u00a0<\/span>Online Premiere and Live Chat<\/a>\u00a0will also begin at 8 p.m. ET with the filmmaker, Derrick Evans, Brentin Mock and Leslie Fields (director of Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships for the Sierra Club). This program is the culmination of the WORLD Channel\u2019s April exploration of \u201cthe resiliency of people and the planet.\u201d\u00a0On April 29 viewers can find the broadcast of\u00a0<\/span>Come Hell or High Water<\/i>\u00a0on a\u00a0<\/span>local public TV station<\/a>\u00a0or join the\u00a0<\/span>live chat<\/a>. Mississippi Public Broadcasting will air the documentary locally on April 30 and the film will stream nationally on\u00a0<\/span>PBS Video<\/a>\u00a0April 30 \u2013 May 29.<\/span><\/p>\n

On April 24, 2014 communities confronting challenges similar to those in Turkey Creek will hold\u00a0Come Hell or High Water<\/i>\u00a0events. Derrick Evans will join other Gulf Coast community leaders for a screening at the\u00a0Justice Leadership Summit<\/a>\u00a0in Mobile, Alabama; filmmaker Leah Mahan will attend a screening hosted by\u00a0East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0Art Theatre<\/a>\u00a0in Long Beach, California. Teresa Fox-Bettis, organizer of the Mobile event, describes the response of local residents to the film: \u201cWe were moved to tears. You see, Africatown, much like Turkey Creek, was established by freed slaves, and the stories were eerily similar in so many ways. For us it was a painful reminder, but it was validation, it was hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek<\/i><\/a>\u00a0follows the painful but inspiring journey of Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher who moves home to coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport.\u00a0 Over the course of a decade, Derrick and his neighbors stand up to powerful corporate interests and politicians and face Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster in their struggle for self-determination and environmental justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

“This intimate film tells a gigantic story \u2014 about race, about power, about so-called development. But it is also a saga of community, resilience, resistance, and hope. It\u2019s about everything that matters in our society.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2013\u00a0<\/i>Bill Bigelow, Rethinking Schools<\/p>\n

In October 2013 the film won the\u00a0Audience Award for Documentary Feature<\/i>\u00a0when it premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival and was featured at Power Shift, a national gathering of 8,000 youth leaders in Pittsburgh. On March 30, the film screened to a packed theater with special guests at the\u00a0Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital<\/a>. The film will be included in\u00a0American Film Showcase<\/a>, a cultural diplomacy program sponsored by the State Department\u2019s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that \u201chighlights the value of film in fostering understanding and cooperation, dialogue and debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

“This powerful documentary illustrates a classic case of environmental injustice and exposes raw in-your-face Mississippi\u00a0racial\u00a0politics.\u00a0<\/i>Come Hell or High Water\u00a0is a perfect lesson that we are not living in a post-racial era.”<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2013 Dr. Robert Bullard, “father of environmental justice,” Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University<\/p>\n

Filmmaker Leah Mahan worked on the documentary for a dozen years and was invited to collaborate with world-class creative advisors as a fellow at the\u00a0Sundance Institute Documentary Editing and Story Lab<\/a>. While producing the film, Mahan worked with Derrick Evans and the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health to create a community media project titled\u00a0Bridge the Gulf<\/a>\u00a0that lifts up the voices of Gulf Coast communities working towards justice and sustainability.\u00a0Come Hell or High Water\u00a0<\/i>is part of\u00a0Reel Power, a collaborative of award-winning documentaries \u201cthat bring you stories from the frontline of our energy future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkey Creek is emblematic of so much of what is going on in the world right now \u2026 These communities were not supposed to survive, but they\u2019ve survived. And the solutions that they\u2019re coming up with are the solutions that we all really need to pay attention to and lift up.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2013 Leslie Fields, Director of Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships, Sierra Club<\/p>\n

Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek<\/i>\u00a0is a co-production of Zamler Productions, LLC and the Independent Television Service (ITVS), produced in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The film was also supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Berkeley Film Foundation, Just Media Fund, Winograd-Hutner Family Fund, Nu Lambda Trust, LEF Moving Image Fund, Fleishhacker Foundation and individual donors.<\/span><\/p>\n

About the filmmaker<\/b><\/p>\n

Leah Mahan is an independent documentary filmmaker whose work has been nominated by the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. Mahan\u2019s film\u00a0Sweet Old Song<\/i>\u00a0(2002) was selected by Roger Ebert for his Overlooked Film Festival (\u201cEbertfest\u201d). Mahan began her career as a research assistant for filmmaker Henry Hampton on the groundbreaking PBS series on the civil rights movement\u00a0Eyes on the Prize<\/i>. A sequel to her first film,\u00a0Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street<\/i>\u00a0(1996), was completed in 2013. The films tell the story of a vibrant community organization that transforms a devastated Boston neighborhood through grassroots organizing.<\/p>\n

For more information<\/b><\/p>\n