DC Environmental Film Festival

Shifting Coastlines: Tough Choices, Innovative Responses (Pulitzer Center)

Expired March 28, 2022 3:45 AM
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8 films + livestream in package
At the Edge of a Warming World: Climate Change on Cape Cod
If we are going to preserve Cape Cod we must learn to look for warnings we would prefer to ignore.
Closed captions available
Sunny Day Floods
Most people associate floods with storms and hurricanes. But coastal cities all along the eastern seaboard are experiencing a huge increase in "nuisance" or "sunny day" flooding.
Closed captions available
Resisting the Flood
With increasing storm intensity due to our changing climate, the historic town of Princeville is experiencing more and more frequent flooding.
Closed captions available
Shoreline Defenders
There's an alternative to hardened shorelines like bulkheads and seawalls, one that coastal managers are starting to use.
Closed captions available
Squeezing the Marsh
The humble Saltmarsh sparrow lives in a habitat that's threatened by climate change. The marshes they live in are being squeezed out of existence — development on one side, and rising seas on the other.
Closed captions available
Feeding the Beach
Rising seas and increased storms due to climate change are eroding beaches along the NC coast. But beach towns like Emerald Isle, NC, rely on feeding the beach through using beach nourishment to buy more time.
Closed captions available
Uprooted
After Hurricane Ida slammed into the Louisiana coast in August 2021, it took more than 100 lives and cost billions of dollars in damage. To some here, the storm’s coming was just one more justification for a desperate measure to preserve the state’s coast by intentionally flooding parts of the state.
Closed captions available
The Last Holdouts
In 2020, five major storms slammed the Louisiana coast, the most ever in a single season. For many living here, this unprecedented barrage was a final warning.
Closed captions available
Shifting Coastlines: Live Filmmaker Q&A (March 25, 7pm)
Featuring Shifting Coastlines Filmmakers
Recorded

Films Curated by the Pulitzer Center


Includes a live discussion featuring Shifting Coastlines filmmakers, moderated by the Pulitzer Center. Including: Duy Linh Tu (Director, The Last Holdouts and Uprooted), Frank Graff (Co-director, Feeding the Beach), and Michelle Lotker (Director, Squeezing the Marsh and Resisting the Flood, co-director, Feeding the Beach) joined by journalist Rickey Ciapha Dennis Jr (The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC), and Ann Peters (Pulitzer Center)


NOTE: the films will not be broadcast live. They are meant to be watched separately.


Climate change is no longer a distant worry. It is happening now, and our structures and communities are not designed for the climate of the future and have become increasingly fragile. 


Along the North Carolina coast, change is the only constant with storms, wind, waves, and water creating a dynamic landscape. Yet dramatic changes that could be observed within a generation now sometimes occur within a week. In Louisiana, the Indigenous People of Pointe-Aux-Chenes are fighting against climate change and coastal erosion that have irreversibly disrupted their livelihoods.


This program brings together a series of short films, supported by the Pulitzer Center and its Connected Coastlines Initiative, to explore how coastal communities around the United States are facing tough choices while creating innovative responses to climate change.


Connected Coastlines is the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide climate reporting initiative in U.S. coastal states. This initiative has supported 26 reporting projects, which has yielded 130 stories published by 39 media outlets on every U.S. coastline, including Alaska and Hawaii.


This reporting initiative is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education, The One Earth Fund, The Hartfield Foundation, as well as the Pulitzer Center's many individual donors and funders.

The humble Saltmarsh sparrow lives in a habitat that's threatened by climate change. The marshes they live in are being squeezed out of existence —development on one side, and rising seas on the other. And marshes aren’t only important as bird habitats. Humans rely on them too. Follow along with researchers from UNC Wilmington as they survey the marshes. Director of Photography Miriam McSpadden.

  • Year
    2021
  • Runtime
    6 minutes
  • Country
    United States
  • Director
    Michelle Lotker