Eroding History to Air on Maryland Public Television
BALTIMORE – The Environmental Justice Journalism Initiative is proud to announce that our most recent film, Eroding History, will air on Maryland Public Television (MPT) during its 20th annual Chesapeake Bay Week® programming initiative, which will run from April 21 through April 27, 2024. The film will also be offered to other PBS stations nationwide, and it will be made available for free on-demand streaming through PBS’s website and the PBS App.
Eroding History tells the story of two Black communities on the Deal Island Peninsula that are losing their land and their history due to the intersection of historical racism and modern climate changes. Many of those interviewed are related to the writer James Baldwin, whose mother grew up on the island. André Chung, a news and portrait photographer who won the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Domestic Photography, directed Eroding History. West Baltimore filmmaker and journalist Sean Yoes co-wrote and co-produced it. Longtime Chesapeake Bay chronicler Rona Kobell, EJJI’s editor in chief, produced and also co-wrote it.
“When people think about environmental justice, they often think about pollution coming into a Black neighborhood and causing health problems,” Kobell said. “It is that, but environmental justice is not just about keeping problems out. It’s about holding on to what you have, and Black communities are trying so hard to do that. Yet, they are losing ground, both to policies that penalize them and to sea level rise and climate change.”
Eroding History is among the few Chesapeake Bay films that center Black communities at the forefront of climate change. Black people are often on the lowest land, because that was the only land that was available to them. On the Eastern Shore, where everything is low, the lowest spot is a dangerous place. Rising water, saltwater intrusion, and marsh migration are endangering Black lands at a rapid pace. That Black filmmakers are telling these stories is important, and EJJI is proud to provide a platform for telling and disseminating these films.
Eroding History premiered at Baltimore’s Senator Theatre on April 18, to an audience of close to 400 viewers. Since then, the film has won several awards and shown in several film festivals. Eroding History won Baltimore Magazine ‘s 2023 award for Best Environmental Reporting. The film was an official selection at the Chesapeake International Film Festival in Easton, the Loyola Environmental Film Festival in Baltimore, the Multi-Dimension Film Festival in London, and the Nature Without Borders Film Festival in Rehoboth Beach. Chung was a semi-finalist, Best Director, in the Lonely Wolf Film Festival in London.
You can read more about the film here, and watch a trailer here.
