Plum Island

Human Nature

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I'm please to finally be able to make Human Nature, my short documentary on Plum Island, available online. I initially started the project in the spring of 2013 and it was screened at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival a year ago in the fall. The film explores the issue of erosion on Plum Island and how the various people involved are trying to deal with the situation.

'Human Nature' Screening

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I'm excited that my short documentary film on Plum Island 'Human Nature' is finally complete and will be screening at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival this weekend.
The film is 15 minutes long and is screening Sunday, September 20th at 11:30 AM in The Screening Room, 82 State St, Newburyport, MA 01950. It will be screened along with another short film. You can get tickets here.

Creating this film was a long difficult process for me as the story and issue are pretty complex and I was trying my best to accurately represent all sides. I feel good about the results though, and I'm looking forward to sharing the final product with the Newburyport community!

Synopsis: Plum Island is a barrier beach on the north shore of Massachusetts that people have inhabited, in one form or another, since the early 1800s. In the past few decades, people have built more conventional homes where dune shacks once stood. In 2013, a series of winter storms caused enough erosion damage to destroy six of these homes. Many outsiders see the people on the island as wealthy homeowners who built too close to the water and got what they deserved, but the truth is much more complicated.

Newburyport Documentary Film Festival

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I was really fortunate to be able to screen a short clip from my Plum Island documentary (which is still a work in progress) at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival this past weekend. The screening was part of a special section of the festival for works in progress and was screened alongside a film on Henry Beston. It was great to be able to show something to an audience and receive feedback and after a year and a half of working on this project it's definitely given me an extra boost of motivation to see the project through to the end.

Earth Port Film Festival

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A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to have a film screened at the Earth Port Film Festival in Newburyport, MA. The film, Rise and Fall, is one that I produced along with Lindsey Topham and Sarah Ganzhorn for the International Documentary Challenge about a year ago and it deals with the erosion issues on Plum Island, MA. It was great to be able to participate in the festival and meet other filmmakers who were also interested in highlighting environmental issues. You can watch interviews with me and some of the other filmmakers here: http://www.earthportfilm.org/ (start at 7:18 for my interview).