SoLa: Lousiana water stories (1:46)
Date of Video: Jul 2, 2010
Everywhere you look in Southern Louisiana (SoLa) there’s water – bayous, swamps, the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico. And everyone in Cajun Country has a water story, or two or three. SoLa's waterways are also home to the biggest economies in Louisiana – a $70 billion a year oil and gas industry and a $2.4 billion a year fishing business. Both are in the midst of sizable change.
This new film, "Sola: Louisiana Water Stories," from Jon Bowermaster and Oceans 8 Films began shooting in July 2008 and finished after the Deepewater Horizon disaster. While the stories told in the film about environmental risks and the subsequent loss of culture and southern Louisiana's unique way of life were relevant pre-spill, they became even more poignant with images of oil-soaked birds and the Gulf on fire (Health and safety aspects of in-situ burning of oil) being broadcast around the globe 24/7.
The film has had a great initial run, screening from Lincoln Center in New York City to the Manship Theater in Baton Rouge, from Savannah to Monterey, and it will continue showing into the new year, kicking off at the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City and later in the winter at the Explorer's Club, the National Geographic Society and festivals from San Francisco to New Haven.
For information on upcoming screenings of his new film, SoLa: Louisiana Water Stories, please click here.
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Jon Bowermaster is a writer and filmmaker whose projects have taken him all over the world. He is the author of eleven books, producer of a dozen documentary films, and recipient of numerous awards. His most recent book is OCEANS, The Threats to the Sea and What You Can Do To Turn the Tide. An anthology of original essays by some of the world's most intriguing ocean thinkers and doers, the book is companion to the new Jacques Perrin/DisneyNature film OCEANS, which both came out in the U.S. on Earth Day April 22. His film, "Terra Antarctica," documented a six-week long exploration of the Antarctic Peninsula by sail and sea kayak won "Best Ocean Issues" award from the Blue Ocean Film Festival.
A six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council, his 2007-2008 Antarctic expedition was the final in his OCEANS 8 project, which over the past decade has taken him and his teams around the world by sea kayak, including expeditions to the Aleutian Islands, Vietnam, French Polynesia, Chile/Argentina/Bolivia, Gabon, Croatia and Tasmania. Seeing the world from the seat of a sea kayak over the past decade has given Bowermaster a one-of-a-kind look at both the health of the world's oceans and the lives of the nearly 3 billion people around the globe who depend on them.
His reporting on the relationship between man and the sea continues with his blog – "Notes From Sea Level (SoLa: Lousiana water stories (1:46)) " and at The Current - giving him a daily forum for continuing the conversation with a growing audience.
