Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed on the WORLD Channel tomorrow, Tuesday, April 29: COME HELL OR HIGH WATER: THE BATTLE FOR TURKEY CREEK
Leah Mahan’s chronicle of an imperiled community and heritage made its debut at the New Orleans Film Festival last year, where it won the documentary audience award. Other stops have included Washington DC’s Environmental fest and the upcoming SF Green fest.
Filming over a decade, Mahan focuses on Derrick Evans, a Boston-based teacher who is a sixth generation descendant of the freed slaves who formed the coastal Mississippi community of Turkey Creek in the 1860s. When development threatens his old home, including the bulldozing of ancestral graves to accommodate the ever-expanding neighboring city of Gulfport, Evans returns to the South to take a stand and protect not only his roots, but the vibrant wetlands that are threatened. Though initially planning a short-term stay, Hurricane Katrina and Rita, and, later, the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, add to the challenges Evans and his neighbors face. While Evans is an appealing protagonist, there’s a bit too much focus placed on him at the expense of the far more intriguing setting and history of Turkey Creek, which begs for further expansion than is provided here.
what (not) to doc 