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on October 4
Canary Collective
Posted project update #6Oil & Water Update
It’s been little more than year since Rob Davis and I started working on our documentary, Oil & Water, which describes the intersection of oil and gas production, the seafood industry and Cajun culture. Thanks to your generous contributions to our KickStarter campaign, we’ve kept a steady pace, interviewing a number of experts including scientists, journalists, shrimpers, elected officials, writers, professors and others.
We will still be doing some shooting in the next few months to fill in any gaps in our narrative, but we are now mostly working on post-production, which includes logging and organizing the hours and hours of footage. Before the year is out, we hope to have a rough copy that we can hone into the final product.
After we’ve edited, edited and edited some more, we will begin applying to film festivals. For most major festivals, they expect a world premiere, so although we would like to have a New Orleans screening soon, we will be unable to due to the film festival constraints. If we are fortunate to get the film into a major festival and it’s received well, this would open the door for more festivals and opportunities to show the film.
But that’s putting the shrimp before the net, and first and foremost, we need to get our story together before we can start thinking about the future. So we continue to appreciate your support and we look forward to presenting a film that will make you proud of your investment.
Until next time…David Winkler-Schmit
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on April 27, 2011
Canary Collective
Posted project update #5It’s been a year since the Deepwater Horizon Oil rig explosion that killed 11 people and lead to the worse oil leak in U.S. history…
Post CommentIn the past six months, Rob Davis and I have conducted dozens of interviews and paid a number of visits to coastal Louisiana as part of our Kickstarter-sponsored film (tentatively titled Oil and Water). We’ve spoken to many experts including scientists, journalists, historians, an economist, a toxicologist and others. Along the way, we’ve also spent a fair amount of time with George and Carol Terrebonne.
As you recall, the Terrebonnes own the Seafood Shed with a Golden Meadow location and another shop in Leeville. These Cajun great-grandparents have experienced significant losses since the oil leak that spilled more than 170 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. They were forced to close the Leeville shop for four months, sales plummeted and they have faced months of uncertainty over what the next shrimp season will bring. Still George remains an optimist.
“I think it’s going to be a good season,” George says about the upcoming brown shrimp season, which will begin sometime in early-to-mid May. George rarely utters a straight sentence without following it with a humorous twist. And this is no exception.
“I’m hoping, but (state Department of) Wildlife and Fisheries says that there’s going to be a lot of shrimp, and they’re never right,” George adds, laughing.
It’s a year later; the Terrebonnes are still in business, facing uncertainty and hoping that they will overcome the oil spill and it’s after effects. Only time will tell, and thanks to your generous contribution, Rob and I will continue to document their story.
Until next time…
David Winkler-Schmit
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on October 12, 2010
Canary Collective
Posted project update #4Kickstarter Update: First, thanks to everyone who contributed towards our documentary, Oil & Water. Literally, we couldn’t do it without you.
Post CommentAfter getting the green light on the project, we decided our next step would be returning to Gold Meadow, near the Gulf of Mexico, to visit some of those we first interviewed in late June. Back then, there was little hope in Golden Meadow: most of the area’s fishing was closed because of the oil leak; people feared the Obama Administration’s drilling moratorium would produce massive layoffs, and there was scant Louisiana seafood available for sale from local merchants, like the owners of the Seafood Shed, George and Carol Terrebonne. The beginning of summer usually meant dawn-to-dusk business at the Terrebonne’s two locations, but at the time, all the Cajun couple could offer customers was Texas pond shrimp. Retail sales had plummeted to just a couple of hundred pounds of shrimp per day, and George and Carol were attempting to lease their Leeville location to BP.
When we pulled into the Shed’s parking lot in Golden Meadow on a comfortable fall day in October, the Seafood Shed had transformed. A shrimp boat unloaded its catch on the Shed’s
dock with another two boats waiting to unload; a Shed employee used a forklift to load wholesale shrimp into trailers and customers streamed in and out, buying coolers full of large Louisiana shrimp. Carol Terrebonne told us that business started turning around once the white shrimp season began in mid-August, their Leeville location had re-opened and in September, they sold 47,000 pounds of retail shrimp, down from last year’s 65,000 pounds. Terrebonne hoped the rest of the season, which she said ends around the Christmas holidays, would be productive, but she added a couple of caveats.“We’re not selling as much wholesale shrimp to the processing plant because people up north are scared of the shrimp. We still don’t know what’s going to happen next year,” Terrebonne said.
George Terrebonne quickly added that the Louisiana seafood is being scrutinized more than any other seafood, and that it’s safe.
Later that day, Rob Davis and I spent some time on Jervis Eymard’s 31-foot shrimp boat, T- Marroo. Eymard, a 76-year-old former oil worker, docks his boat on Bayou LaFourche, and as he gave us a mini-tour of the bayou, he said the white shrimp season had been good so far. It was a cloudless day in the 80s, and Eymard, dressed in blue overalls and white shrimp boots, gave us a rundown on how he works the skimmer nets, pulling them through the water and taking out the shrimp even while the nets remain in the water.
“I just take out enough [shrimp] to fill my cooler,” Eymard said. Then he laughed and told us that his ‘cooler’ holds 2,400 pounds of shrimp.
Like the Terrebonnes, Eymard is uncertain what the future holds, and that uncertainty is something Rob and I will focus our documentary on through the beginning of the spring shrimp season. We’ll talk to environmental experts, historians and others to find out more about the Cajun culture, the future of seafood and offshore drilling in the Gulf, and the unlikely combination of Oil & Water.
Until next time…
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on September 15, 2010
Canary Collective
Posted project update #3Thanks to all our funders.
Post CommentWe are very excited to be on the receiving end of your generosity. With this funding we will be able to pay more visits to the Gulf Coast and work on producing an important document we hope you all will love to watch.
More news soon as we continue work on the project.
Peace,
Blake Haney
Creative Director
The Canary Collective -
on September 15, 2010Funded!
Oil & Water: Economics and Preserving Cajun Culture by Canary Collective
A documentary presenting the story of those most affected by the Gulf oil leak: the insulted and embattled Cajun community.
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104% funded $9,430 pledged
- 73 backers
- Funded Sep 15, 2010
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on September 11, 2010
Canary Collective
Posted project update #23 days to go.
Post CommentMonday is the last day we can accept donations to reach our goal. Please help spread the word if you can today and tomorrow to anyone you believe might be willing to help with the project. Hopefully we reach our goal and can produce the stories.
We will update you Monday.
Thanks,
Blake Haney
Creative Director
The Canary Collective -
on September 7, 2010
Canary Collective
Posted project update #18 Days Left
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on July 26, 2010
Canary Collective
commented on a projectSorry Edie, It's up now.
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on July 23, 2010
Canary Collective launched a project
Oil & Water: Economics and Preserving Cajun Culture by Canary Collective
A documentary presenting the story of those most affected by the Gulf oil leak: the insulted and embattled Cajun community.
- $9,000 funding goal
- 09/15/2010 Funding Ended
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on April 5, 2010
Canary Collective
backed a project
Land of Opportunity - A Multi-Platform Documentary by Luisa Dantas / JoLu Productions
Six people. One City. Our Future. LAND OF OPPORTUNITY captures the tumultuous reconstruction of New Orleans.
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112% funded $28,049 pledged
- 236 backers
- Funded May 01, 2010
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Canary Collective
New Orleans, LA
Canary Collective joined Kickstarter on March 05, 2010
Hi there,
Always great to hear from you. Thank you for keeping in touch.
You're ready when you're ready, we'll see the film when we see.
Keep up the good work.