Plum Island (working Title)

TYPE: Documentary
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Production

LOGLINE

As a high security government lab plans its departure, every issue of our times converges on tiny Plum Island, 100 nautical miles from Times Square.

SYNOPSIS

On the waters off Long Island, a battle unfolds on tiny Plum Island, as major interests -- Department of Homeland Security, tribal nations, 120 groups, even artists -- vie for the future of an island once inhabited by indigenous peoples, occupied by the government, and preserving a habitat unchanged for 400 years.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

Plum Island in the center of a scenic archipelago reflects one of the main dilemmas of modern times: negotiating nature preservation against the backdrop of a potentially cataclysmic climate crisis and the need to fight for an equitable response to the consequences this crisis will cause. In 2020/2021 I directed a three-part documentary series commissioned by European Network ARTE called “Archipelago New York.” Inspired by books such as "Darwin comes to Town" by Menno Schilthuizen, the series explores how nature negotiates its very existence in a metropolitan area like New York. The geography of islands often represents a condensed version of a universal story. In the case of New York, I have long argued that the city’s iconographic status stems from the fact that it is built on an island. Centered in an archipelago of more than seventy islands spanning from New York harbor to the very east end of the Long Island Sound, the island geography has shaped a mentality that is quintessential to New York – a city of resilience, uniqueness, and self-referentiality. Plum Island represents another aspect of this story. It spans in time from the long indigenous presence on the Island to the European colonialists' arrival on the continent’s northeastern shore at the beginning of the 1600s, to modern times, when major non-profit organizations, indigenous groups, and affluent communities fight for the island’s preservation in the uncertain era of climate change and rising sea levels. My vision is to tell a local story that juxtaposes key issues of America's history and its present dilemmas, the genocide and dislocation of indigenous people, slavery, and military history, to land conservation and responses to the current climate crisis. I moved to the United States at the beginning of the 1990s and became an American citizen in 2015. Through my own story, I have discovered the importance of a sense of place, which for me is a connection to a place beyond being aware of factual information associated with it. As a filmmaker, I explore how this experience can be conveyed in a single image, or through filmic, visual storytelling that enables a new emotional experience of place for the viewer. In my documentary series about New York, I refocused on the city’s natural landscape, combining the imagery of Jamaica Bay’s marshland with the city’s iconic skyline, giving even lifelong New Yorkers a completely new visual experience of their city where they live.. I have personally experienced this through thousands of miles of sailing single-handedly into the island world of New York -- which was also the way I discovered Plum Island and its fascinating past and present. Following the spirit of sailor and writer Jonathan Raban, who inspired my work, I discovered that the perspective from the water changes not only the view of the landscape but the perception of the place as a whole. This will be the guiding principle of the film.

KEY CREW

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