A new documentary by Professor Elizabeth Coffman investigates the endangered Louisiana coastline.
The Louisiana coast “Protecting the coastal area and starting to restore it
are vital,” Coffman says. “This is the first coastal area to go under, but it won’t be the last.”
Coffman, a faculty member in the School of Com-
munication, and Ted Hardin, with whom she made the documentary Veins in the Gulf and with whom she is the co-founder of media company Long Distance Produc- tions, were introduced to the story of the disappearing wetlands seven or eight years ago, before Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast. Coffman, a Florida native, was teaching at the University of Tampa with Louisiana poet Martha Serpas, who is the guide and narrator of the documentary.
“She introduced us to many of the participants in the
film, who run the gamut from politics to the media to other writers to environmental scientists,” says Coffman.
When Katrina hit in 2005, the area was suddenly the
focus of national attention. “We started following the story of wetland loss after Katrina and Rita, and then when Gustave and Ike hit a few years later, we started more seriously following the community trying to save their homes,” says Coffman. The challenges facing the Louisiana coast are numer-
ous and complex. “For example, when you build levees, you destroy wetlands,” says Coffman. But without levees, people’s homes are in danger. And sea level rise will only continue. Veins in the Gulf shows imagery of the Louisiana coast
now and in the past and features levee board politicians, water specialists, engineers, and musicians speaking about their home, their perspective on the imminent
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is the fastest disappearing landmass in
the world. According to Elizabeth Coffman, PhD, a football field’s worth of land disappears there every 45 minutes.
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