Veins in the Gulf Documentary Screening and Panel Discussion May 4, 2011

The words and image of Louisiana poet Martha Serpas guide the viewer through the documentary as we journey through the remnants of Louisiana’s bayou regions. We fly over the wetlands, examine historic aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and go shrimping for dwindling seafood. Levee board politicians, water specialists, engineers, musicians, writers and medicine men all offer their advice and memories of home after this century’s devastating storms: Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, and now the oil disaster.

Panelists: Martha Serpas (poet from Galliano, Louisiana), filmmakers Ted Hardin (Columbia College) and Elizabeth Coffman (Loyola University), and wetlands scientist Nancy Tuchman (Loyola University).

Director of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program Kerry St. Pé has worked tirelessly as a steward to the wetlands. Having grown up hunting and fishing in the marsh surrounding his home, he now coordinates activities to sustain one of the largest and most important working wetlands in the U.S. In his spare time he is building a beautiful wooden kayak by hand.

Levee Director Windell Curole testifies before Congress to get money to build safer levees, warns his Parish residents that their land is sinking, fights with politicians to agree on a solution, flies over his formally French-speaking Cajun home in Leeville, and plays guitar in the “Hurricane Levee Band.”

Water quality specialist Andrew Barron works for the national estuary program, visiting marshes and examining plant life during the day, and gets kidney dialysis during the night, three times a week, letting a machine cleanse his blood, just as the wetlands cleanse our drinking water.

Cajun Bluesman Tab Benoit born and raised in Houma sings all over the country, but fights hard for the wetlands, organizing festivals, appearing in films, raising awareness for every audience he sings for.
Native American, shrimper Whitney Dardar recalls swimming across the bayous when seafood was abundant in the wetlands, and being asked to leave school in the 6th grade because of his native, French-speaking heritage. A trained medicine man, his daughter Brenda is the chief of the Houma Indian tribe, and a wetlands advocate.

Sponsored by Critical Encounters and the Departments of Film & Video, Television, English, and Science & Math.

Official Website: http://www.veinsinthegulf.com