“This documentary is the best made documentary on the issues facing us and our relation to the land in Louisiana…  It asks all the right questions.  It is beautifully paced and beautifully photographed.”
~ Darrell Bourque, former Poet Laureate of Louisiana
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NASA Satellite image Oil Spill, June 2010
Image credit: Jesse Allen/NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Coastlines around the globe are threatened by climate change.  Louisiana’s coast may be the most threatened in the world.  But it’s not only the hurricanes or oil spills that endanger Louisiana.

Southern Louisiana is the fastest disappearing land mass on the globe. A football field of land disappears every 45 minutes in Louisiana.  An area the size of Delaware has eroded since the 1930’s.  In 50 years, Louisiana may not extend much beyond New Orleans.

Veins in the Gulf (78 minutes, 2012) is a documentary that traces the environmental crisis of southern Louisiana, the political decision-making challenges surrounding coastal flooding, and rapidly disappearing bayou culture.  We witness the community trying to solve its environmental crisis and relentlessly searching for strategies to restore the coastline.

Interviews with scientists, musicians and engineers, starting before Katrina and continuing through the BP oil disaster, are narrated by Louisiana writer Martha Serpas.  Serpas guides the audience through stories of land loss, flood control engineering, and oil-damaged marshes.  Her poetry reminds the viewer where great American literature, music, and seafood have come from for the past century.

But may not for the next…

Produced, directed, and edited by Elizabeth Coffman and Ted Hardin