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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