Chief Albert at the United Nations

In April 2010, we traveled to New York with Chief Albert for our film Can’t Stop The Water. Chief Albert was scheduled to address a Forum on Indigenous People. Due to a mixup, he was never called to speak. This is what he intended to say.

Thank you Mr. Chairman for allowing me to speak at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous People.

I want to address the problem that I am facing with the local, state and federal government. In 1830 the Removal Act was put into action to force American Indians into one area. We know that area as the state of Oklahoma. Some of us didn’t want to walk the to trail to Oklahoma. We were forced to hide in the southern bayous of Louisiana, not to be found by the non-indigenous people. We were fisherman and farmers so we were able to live good off the land. This small Indian community of Isle de Jean Charles, as we call it, “The Island”, is the first to be forced to retreat because of coastal land loss. The land had been occupied by the tribal people since 1840. The non-indigenous forced us to move there. We like it and we have called it home for 170 years. Mother Nature wants us to abandon our home and move further north. Little by little we are moving to higher and safer land. In 2000, the land was made up of 78 homes. The tribe had 670 members. Today the island has 25 homes that people live in, even if they were damaged by hurricanes. What is happening to us is exactly what the non-Indigenous people want. And that is to disassemble us a tribe, or if you will, break us up as an Indian tribe. I ask for financial support from our local, state and federal government but I get more excuses than I have members. The government officials are worried that I don’t have 100% commitment from the community. There is no one that I know or have heard of that can get 100% commitment on any project and this is asking people to move away from their homeland. The two senators said there was no funds for this project. And we know that because the island is the first community in the lower 48 states to be forced to relocate. The reason I say forced is because there are no plans to restore the marshes around the island. The government will just let us to wash away. Only Alaska has some communities forced to relocate due to land loss and climate change. I am asking this forum to help me with my project so I can put the island people back together so we can grow and become strong again. My request is to have the members who have been forced to leave the island to be reunited with their families. Most of the island people have moved away from the island due to hurricanes or due to land loss. In the last 6 years, the island flooded 5 times. You may ask why the people continue to live on the island. It is because they cannot afford a new home somewhere else. Some are living with relatives because they have no place to go. The road to the island hasn’t been fixed since it was damaged by hurricane Gustav. It will only get worse because the Morganza to the Gulf project is to the north of us. The Morganza to the Gulf is a hurricane protection levee system to stop flood waters. The island is to the south and we will have more water than we have ever had if nothing is done to save the island or relocate the people and their houses.

Thank you Mr. Chairman for allowing me to share my concern about my people. The members of the island also say thank you.

Chief Albert

Houma Courier Article about Can’t Stop the Water

Check out this great article featured in the Houma Courier and Daily Comet about Isle de Jean Charles and our documentary, Can’t Stop the Water.

On June 22, 2011, we partnered with Communities on the Horizon to teach a class about the wetlands to the children of the Island. The kids learned about what’s happening to their environment and why it’s important to save the wetlands. And everyone had a blast!

Here are some pictures of the class:

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Boat Blessing

Every year, hundreds of communities in southeastern Louisiana hold a boat blessing, in which local priests bless fishing vessels. This year the blessing was especially poignant, as so many fishermen are struggling against damage from the BP oil spill. In this photo Father Roch, born and raised on Isle de Jean Charles, blesses boats along the Bayou Pointe-Aux-Chenes.

Don Davis

We had a great interview today with Don Davis, author of the masterful new book Washed Away?: The Invisible Peoples of Louisiana’s Wetlands. His book is a tremendous account of the history of the diverse cultures in southern Louisiana and a clarion call for action to restore the wetlands. Don provided important context for the history and geography of Isle de Jean Charles.

Miller’s Tale DVDs are ready for pre-order!

The official Miller’s Tale DVD is now available for pre-order! DVDs will include the hour-long film and multiple Extras: Director’s commentary, Deleted scenes, the Director’s student film Birthday (which captures Jason Miller in one of his final performances on film), and more.

However, we need money to create the dvds. We just launched an online fundraising campaign where you can pre-order a DVD for $25 (shipping included), and if you’d like to give more, we have all kinds of perks!

To purchase a DVD, check out our page here.

By buying your DVD copies now, you are ensuring that they are completed and sent to you as soon as possible. We plan to have pre-orders sent out in August 2011. Please feel free to share the page with friends, family, and Jason Miller fans on social networking sites, blogs, forums, etc. Thanks for supporting Independent Film!

Oyster testing

We had an informative day on the water with Dr. Ed Cake, a biologist who has been working in the area for over 30 years. He was sampling oyster populations for data on how they may have been affected by the BP oil spill. What he found was alarming: a highly unusual absence of “spat,” i.e. young oysters. Ed said that, in his lifetime of experience here, he’s never seen samples like this.

Can’t Stop The Water

For the past 16 months, we have been documenting life on the disappearing island of Isle de Jean Charles for our soon to be completed film, Can’t Stop The Water. We first read about Isle de Jean Charles years ago in Mike Tidwell’s excellent book Bayou Farewell. As residents of Louisiana, we are passionate about the Gulf Coast and its precious wetlands. Not enough people understand the immensity of the coastal erosion that is eating away the Gulf Coast: we lose about an acre of marsh every 20-30 minutes. Over the last century, an area the size of Delaware has quietly slipped away. There are many causes for this loss, but two are by far the most damaging: river levees that starve the land of sediment and oil company canals that crisscross the marsh, letting salt water eat away at fertile freshwater zones.

In the near future, however, there may well be another pressure to contend with: sea level rise from global warming. This small expanse of land is quite literally on the edge of environmental changes that are altering the way people live across the earth.

As the land subsides, it takes with it the social cohesion of some of the most culturally unique communities in the United States. Few places are more endangered than Isle de Jean Charles, where a unique community of French-speaking Native American Cajuns has lived and prospered for 170 years.

Some remember when Isle de Jean Charles was 5 miles wide and filled with lush cypress groves and cow pastures. See the photo we posted above: the island is now a mere 1/4 mile sliver. A series of hurricanes have battered the community in recent years and as the marsh erodes, there is less protection from future storms. Many of the island’s families have moved away from their hurricane-wrecked homes because they are tired of rebuilding. The Chief of the tribe is tirelessly raising support to relocate his people to higher ground while the narrow island still stands.

Around two dozen families remain. When we took our first trip there in January of 2010, we fell quickly in love with the wondrous landscape and the hospitality of its residents. Our film became almost secondary to the friendships we developed, the tranquility we experienced on the island and the seemingly endless supply of fresh seafood to eat! So when the BP disaster struck in April of last year, we were devastated to see the fragile marshes around Isle de Jean tainted with oil and many of the island’s shrimpers and oystermen forced out of work.

During BP damage control, the quiet community around Isle de Jean Charles became a busy staging ground for BP workers. Hundreds of workers moved to the area with news crews and reporters. For months, we all thought the world was ending or at least our small part of the world in South Louisiana. Waters were closed for fishing, birds and other marine life became coated in oil, planes dropping dispersants flew along the coast, images of millions of gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf flooded every tv screen and there was no end in sight.

We’re so glad that daily terror is over. As soon as the well was capped, BP packed up its makeshift village and left. Quiet returned to Isle de Jean Charles, but the effects of the oil and dispersants still linger. Many of the area’s fishermen are just now returning to work and many wonder about the safety of their catch and the long-term health effects of dispersants.

We hope our film Can’t Stop The Water will shed light on this man-made catastrophe. And if Isle de Jean Charles no longer exists in 50 years, we hope our film will serve as a record of a beautiful place and an even more beautiful culture. Our project is a multi-platform documentary that will soon include a website that will remain long after our film is completed. This internet resource will contain oral histories of the island’s residents and important data about the history, ecology, dangers, and possible solutions to the problems they face.

If you would like to help us complete our film, you can do so through our Fiscal Sponsor, The Southern Documentary Fund. All donations are tax deductible. And if you’d like to keep up to date on our progress, “like” us on Facebook!

These photos will give you a sense of the beauty of the place and of the wonderful people who live there.

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Saints Victory Video in New York Magazine!

One year ago today, the New Orleans Saints played in their first Super Bowl in the team’s 42-year history… and WON. Cottage Films took to the streets of New Orleans on that amazing night and captured the moment.

Yesterday our video was mentioned in New York Magazine! Writer Will Leitch says, “We could watch that for hours.” Check out the article here.

New Trailer for Can’t Stop the Water

Mark Davis interview

Today Tulane professor Mark Davis gave us a terrific interview. Prof. Davis is extremely articulate on the issue of coastal erosion and has an inspiring sense of urgency about the danger of inaction. He’s quoted in this recent article on HuffPost, which is a great read about the issues that our film Can’t Stop the Water addresses.