BRYC hosts reception for award-winning climate documentary "Hollow Tree"

On April 15, over 150 guests attended a screening of the powerful film, which features BRYC Alumna Tanielma Da Costa among three Louisiana teens exploring their home state’s sinking coastline. 

By Elin Hawkinson
Hollow Tree Screening 2023

Directed by Kira Akerman, Hollow Tree follows three teenagers coming of age in their sinking homeland of Louisiana. For the first time, they notice the Mississippi River’s engineering, stumps of cypress trees, and billowing smokestacks. Their different perspectives — as Indigenous, white, and Angolan young women — shape their story of the climate crisis.

Director’s Statement
This film invites three young women, who did not previously know each other, to learn with me and my filmmaking team, and their respective communities. They travel to different sites along the Mississippi River, where they engage in dialogue with engineers, activists, and Indigenous leaders. The idea was to use filmmaking as a classroom, and to develop a documentary practice for the climate crisis. As I encourage the young people in my film to notice their surroundings, they begin to imagine Louisiana’s past — its history of slavery, Indigenous dispossession, and colonization — and, by extension, Louisiana’s future. The one that they will experience and help to shape.

"The first step in facing the climate crisis is to empower young people to have a voice, to look within themselves, within their community, and what’s going on in their environment." - Tanielma Da Costa

 At the 2022 New Orleans Film Festival, Hollow Tree was awarded both the jury prize and audience prize. Since then, Akerman has presented screenings across the South, most recently at the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge. “This screening was one of our best yet,” Akerman shared.
 
Along with Akerman, the film’s protagonists participated in a Q&A panel moderated by BRYC’s executive director Lucas Spielfogel, after which guests enjoyed a reception sponsored by the Eva Legard Center for Coastal and Environmental Studies and Louisiana Environmental Action Network. BRYC thanks our sponsors, the Manship Theatre, Akerman’s team, and guests for making it a memorable night!