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Working Films, Bennett College, UNC-Chapel Hill and Warren Wilson College are bringing filmmaker Leah Mahan on a tour across North Carolina this February. Screenings of her documentary Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek will connect faculty, students, and local residents to issues of environmental justice in the state. February 10, 2015, 8pm Warren Wilson College Holden Auditorium, Holden Arts Center, Asheville, NC 28815 Public parking available on campus. Please RSVP to ensure your seat: [email protected], or 828-771-3062. February 11, 2015 at 6 pm Bennett College Global Learning Center Auditorium, 521 Gorrell St., Greensboro, NC 27401 Free public parking on campus. February 12, 2015 at 6pm UNC-Chapel Hill 1301 McGavran-Greenberg Hall, School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC 27759 Public parking available at Dogwood deck, Manning Drive across from UNC Hospital. Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek follows the painful but inspiring story of Derrick Evans and the African American community of Turkey Creek on the gulf coast of Mississippi as they battle developers and politicians in an effort to save their community’s land, history, and culture. Encapsulating pertinent issues of environmental racism, land loss among African American communities, urbanization, and lack of political recognition, the story of Turkey Creek parallels and reflects the story of many communities in North Carolina who have organized for environmental justice and land security. The tour will kick off at Warren Wilson College where the event is hosted by The Office of the President and The Wilson Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity Office. The goal is to encourage dialogue and inspired action against intersecting oppressions - including race, class, and environmental injustice in western North Carolina. Following the film will be a discussion with filmmaker Leah Mahan and the audience of students, faculty and community members. Come Hell or High Water will launch Bennett College’s Black History Month Film Series. The Africana Women's Studies’ Dr. Valerie Ann Johnson will facilitate an interactive post-screening discussion. Our co-hosts include the Division of Humanities and Africana Women's Studies departments, and the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters Foundation. Members of the grassroots environmental justice community in the Triad will offer their reflections on the documentary and update the audience regarding local and statewide efforts. At UNC-Chapel Hill, event is part of broader initiative to strengthen an education-science-activism paradigm at the university, and to envision an urban planning approach that integrates science, community, and environmental justice. Local, long-time environmental justice organizers Omega Wilson of West End Revitalization Association and David Caldwell of the Roger Eubanks Neighborhood Association, will join with Assistant Professor Danielle Spurlock (UNC-CH City and Regional Planning) and the filmmaker to in a discussion moderated by Danielle Purifoy (Duke Environmental Policy). The screening is hosted by The Institute for the Environment at UNC, the UNC Department of Communication Studies, the UNC Department of Geography, the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, and Working Films. Follow Working Films on Facebook for photos and updates during the events.

We’re hard at work bringing Coal Ash Stories to even more areas in North Carolina, and two recent screenings highlight the importance of bringing these film to communities that face the potential hazards of coal ash pollution. Events in Lumberton (Robeson County) and Pittsboro (Chatham County) were organized by local organizations who want to assure that their sites - and all 14 coal ash storage locations across the state - are properly cleaned up. On the banks of the Lumber River and home to the Lumbee Tribe, Lumberton has a long history of environmental organizing. It is also home to Duke Energy’s W.H. Weatherspoon Power Station and its unlined coal ash pits. Given these dangers, Winyah Rivers Foundation and Center for Community Action in Lumberton partnered with NC WARN to host a screening October 23rd at the Robeson County Public Library. [caption id="attachment_3353" align="aligncenter" width="438"] Christine Ellis of Winyah Rivers Foundation shows the coal ash pits across the state.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3354" align="aligncenter" width="440"] Nick Wood of NC WARN shows the location of the coal ash pits in Lumberton.[/caption] During the Q&A, facilitated by the Christine Ellis of Winyah Rivers Foundation and Nick Wood of NC WARN, community members expressed concern over the lack of attention given to Eastern NC and the need to educate local decision makers on this issue. They also considered how to use the Lumber River’s Wild and Scenic designation and regulations requiring protection of Native American cultural heritage to leverage needed protection for their river, land, and communities. The Fayetteville Observer covered the the event, highlighting community member’s concerns. The screening served as the kick off to a series of meetings to demand the clean up of the Weatherspoon Power Station’s coal ash impoundments. The Cape Fear Power Station is situated at the juncture of Chatham and Lee counties. Local groups are concerned about the effects of the coal ash impoundment there and joined together with Cape Fear Riverkeeper to host Coal Ash Stories. This March, Duke Energy was caught illegally pumping coal ash wastewater from the Chatham County plant into a tributary of the Cape Fear River. Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette whose territory covers the entire Cape Fear River Basin, was invited to speak not only about the potential threat posed by the Cape Fear impoundment but also his continued work advocating for the clean-up and regulation of the Sutton Steam Plant facility in Wilmington. [caption id="attachment_3359" align="aligncenter" width="349"] Kemp Burdette of Cape Fear River Watch and Elaine Chiosso of the Haw River Assembly[/caption] The screening was held at the Chatham Community Library with a Q&A led by Elaine Chiosso of the Haw River Assembly, Kemp Burdette of Cape Fear River Watch, and Abundance NC. Elaine and Kemp encouraged the audience to voice their concerns to decision makers and to demand that all the coal ash impoundments in North Carolina be cleaned up. The audience was engaged, at times outraged, but also inspired by the work and commitment of their riverkeepers. More screenings of Coal Ash Stories are happening across NC in the next couple of months! Please keep your eyes out for events in Asheville, Boone, Franklin, Goldsboro, New Bern and Sylva. Here are the details on events happening in the next few weeks! Sylva November 20th,  6:30pm Jackson County Public Library 310 Keener St, Sylva NC 28779 Hosted by The Canary Coalition, Jackson County NAACP, Occupy Western NC For more information: http://www.screeninghq.org/screenings/details/26545 Boone December 4th, 6:30pm Appalachian State University, Plemmons’ Student Union Rough Ridge Room (415, 4th floor) 263 Locust St, Boone, NC 28608 Hosted by Appalachian Voices, Watauga NAACP, Appalachian Educators for Social Justice, Center for Appalachian Studies, and Sustainability & Environmental Education Club - SEEC For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/1532666986972204/ New Bern December 11th, 6:30pm Craven County Public Library 400 Johnson St, New Bern NC 28560 Hosted by Carolina Nature Coalition and NC WARN Featuring Q&A with Neuse Riverkeeper For more information: http://www.screeninghq.org/screenings/details/26552

A few weeks ago, a group of activists and scholars of environmental justice met at The Franklinton Center at Bricks for the 17th annual North Carolina Environmental Justice Summit. The former slave plantation and early African American school in Whitakers, NC that has been repurposed as a training, retreat, and educational center for social justice, made for a profound setting for the opening night screening of Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek by Leah Mahan. Fifty participants gathered to watch and discuss the painful but inspiring story of Derrick Evans and the community of Turkey Creek on the gulf coast of Mississippi, which battled powerful developers and myopic politicians in an effort to save their community’s land, history, and culture. Encapsulating pertinent issues of environmental racism, land loss among African American communities, urbanization, and lack of political recognition, the story of Turkey Creek parallels the story of many communities in North Carolina who have organized and come together in struggles for environmental justice. The goal for the screening was to help community members and advocates consider new ways to address environmental justice and land loss prevention. Local and long standing environmental justice organizers Omega Wilson of West End Revitalization Association (WERA); David Caldwell with Roger Eubanks Neighborhood Association (RENA) and Coalition to End Environmental Racism (CEER); and Omari Wilson with The Landloss Prevention Project and the EJ Network facilitated the audience discussion. The film elicited cheers, applause, outrage, and even some laughter was heard when Derrick Evans teases the young person working in the Boston community garden for pulling the collard greens rather than the weeds. During the question and answer session, the audience talked about issues like urbanization and the encroachment of development into their rural lands. David Caldwell reflected that Turkey Creek could be replaced with his community of Roger’s Road scene-by-scene. Others empathized with the destruction and loss of family land. Many audience members identified with the invisibility of their communities in the eyes of local politicians who “didn’t even know their community was there.” One person  asked if we had “ever heard of Shiloh?” a town near Cary that “used to be there.”  She pointed out that Turkey Creek could have easily disappeared like Shiloh had it not been for the commitment and ingenuity of Evans’ fight. . Meanwhile, another environmental justice screening of Come Hell or High Water took place at the 25th annual Gullah/Geechee Seafood Festival at the Hunting Island Nature Center in South Carolina on October 25. This event is part of the larger Gullah/Geechee Heritage/Awareness Month celebrating the living traditions of the Gullah/Geechee nation, descendents of blended African ethnic and Indigenous groups that have lived on the barrier islands and coasts of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida since chattel enslavement. The Gullah/Geechee work to preserve cultural heritage and food security, fight displacement due to development and destruction of coastal lands, and advocate for self-determination through various projects like the Sea Island Coalition and the Fishing Association.

Head of state and official spokesperson of the Gullah/Geechee, Queen Quet reported that the screening had standing room only and that, “People loved it and were deeply curious about what has happened to Turkey Creek since the making of the film.” Many expressed outrage at the ubiquity of displacement, landloss, development, and environmental injustice along the southern coasts from North Carolina to Mississippi and Louisiana. Queen Quet plans to continue using the film to engage more members of her community on how to protect their communities and lands.

Given its accessibility, locality, humanity, and  the ways in which it cuts to the core issues of environmental injustice and gives communities a chance to respond, Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek is becoming an important tool in the fights against environmental racism and landloss in the South. Future screenings are in the works including one with a coalition of professors at NC State and UNC Chapel Hill who are planning a screening and discussion with the filmmaker and local Environmental Justice activists in January.

Working Films is partnering with the Cucalorus Film Festival to put together an art installation entitled, Smoke and Water. We need people like you to participate in creating the installation. Could you volunteer a few hours of your time to help the artist paint? No artistic ability required, just a willingness to get your hands dirty with some bright paint. We need your help this Thursday November 6th through Tuesday November 11th. You can sign up for a block of time. See the specifics on time and location below and email Andy Myers to RSVP: [email protected]. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of this important community art project. For your participation you'll be invited to a closed door reception celebrating art and activism during the Cucalorus Film Festival! Art Installation Volunteering Details: Where: SEACC Community Action Center, 317 Castle St. When: November 7th – afternoon November 8th – 11th (Sign up in 4 hour blocks: 9am-1pm, 1pm-5pm, & 5pm-9pm) November 12th – 9am to noon. What: Stand up against Coal Ash Pollution! Help create a community mural! Who: Wilmington residents, artists and, art students Additional Info: Wear clothes you don't mind getting paint dripped on. If you have any brushes you use for acrylic paint, feel free to bring them If you have paint cups or containers, that would be great! RSVP Sign up for a 4 hour block of time by contacting Andy Myers, [email protected], (910) 599-7447. Samples of previous works by the artist can be found at this link; description of wall painting and sketches below. Further Details about the Project New York-based, Wilmington-born artist Greg Lindquist is preparing a wall painting installation at the Southeastern Alliance for Community Change on coal ash that will include statements from key leaders and impacted community members. This installation is part of a community engagement effort by Working Films, a locally based non-profit and non-partisan organization that builds partnerships between nonfiction media-makers, nonprofit organizations, and educators to advance social and environmental change. The installation and events will be in conjunction with the Cucalorus Film Festival where the film Coal Ash Chronicles will participate in the Work-in-Progress program. Lindquist will create his painting installation in collaboration with local residents, artists and art students in the community. Description of Wall Painting: Smoke and  Water By Greg Lindquist Art requires a social context for its meaning. My painting installations bring the supposed neutrality of the traditional exhibition space into question, while uniting the empathic quality of painting with the voices and experiences of our community. Many people’s hands and touches animate not only the color, form and line in the painting installation, but also the text. These texts give presence to the voices of those impacted by the coal ash pollution, as well as those responsible for its damage and regulation, creating an opportunity for a democratic presentation of voices and contemplation. This wall painting will bring together a condition of reflection through its contemplative yet unsettling beauty, as well as a statement of social engagement about the coal ash pollution. The rectangular squares will contain text painted by hand and gathered from brief statements solicited from impacted community members, scientists, environmentalists, polluters, and policy makers. Also main partner organizations and local groups may contribute. It will contain a response to a statement similar to the following: We are asking for a no more than 50 word statement: Please reflect on your experience and perspectives with coal ash and the future of the environment and your community. What concerns you most? What do you wish for the future?

This November marks the 20th anniversary of the Cucalorus Film Festival, an internationally recognized event that has never shied away from connecting art to important social and environmental issues. Working Films is honored to partner with Cucalorus to engage key leaders and community members around the issue of coal ash pollution. Through our Coal Ash Stories initiative, we are supporting Cucalorus Work-in-Progress film Coal Ash Chronicles. We will be coordinating special viewings and hosting a related art installation Smoke and Water. Join us at the following art and film events this November 6th - 15th. Below is a list of all public Coal Ash Events at this year’s Cucalorus Film Festival: Smoke and Water Art installation gallery hours SEACC Action Center 317 Castle Street, Wilmington, NC 28401 FREE and open to public Artist Greg Lindquist, Working Films and other key leaders will be in attendance. Thursday, 11/13 12pm - 5pm Friday, 11/14, 12pm - 5pm Friday, 11/14, 5pm - 7pm Opening Reception Saturday, 11/15 11am - 1pm Conversation with Greg at 11:30. Coal Ash Chronicles Public film screening times Thursday, 11/6, 7pm - 8:30pm NC Coastal Federation 309 W. Salisbury St., Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480 Free to members, $10 non-members Co-hosted by Cucalorus Film Festival and Working Films. Friday, 11/14, 7:30 pm - 9pm Cucalorus Film Festival Work-in-Progress screening and feedback session Jengo’s Playhouse, 815 Princess Street, Wilmington, NC 28401 $10, purchase ticket Program with filmmakers Rhiannon Fionn and Nell Carden Gray, with participation of Alternate Roots, and Working Films. About the projects: Coal Ash Chronicles is a film about trash in America. Not the trash we’re used to disappearing from the curb, but trash that’s created by coal plants. Coal ash is what remains after coal is burned to generate electricity. Only, unlike the ash left in your fireplace after wood is burned, coal ash is replete with heavy metals and radioactive elements. It’s everywhere; it could be part of the building you’re reading this in right now, and it could be soaking, draining or leaking into your town’s drinking water. The film’s story is told by Rhiannon Fionn, an independent investigative journalist who’s reported on coal ash concerns in Charlotte, N.C., since 2009. In 2012, she took off for Alaska, and all parts in between, during a nearly two-and-a-half year mission to collect coal ash stories from multiple perspectives in an effort to discover if there were any common threads or real solutions … she found both. Smoke and Water is a project of New York-based, Wilmington-born artist Greg Lindquist. Greg will create an installation on the walls of the Southeastern Alliance for Community Change Action Center. The project will explore coal ash pollution and include statements from key leaders and impacted community members. Lindquist will create his installation in collaboration with local artists and art students in the community, as well as organizational partners of Working Films’ Coal Ash Stories project.

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Coal Ash Stories continues to travel to impacted and concerned communities throughout the state.[/caption] Coal Ash Stories is a compilation of four short films that illustrate the public health concerns, policy issues, and ways communities are responding to a toxic pollution. Working Films curated the collection in response to a massive coal ash spill in the Dan River in North Carolina last February. In June, we partnered with Appalachian Voices, Earthjustice, the North Carolina Conservation Network, NC WARN, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and nineteen local organizations to bring the series of shorts across North Carolina to catalyze conversation and action. The 30-minutes of media was paired with issue experts leading the charge for strong protections. We are now continuing the tour to directly impacted and concerned communities throughout the state. Below are the upcoming events that are FREE and open to the public. Please join us if you are in one of these areas. Lumberton Thursday, October 23rd, 7pm Robeson County Public Library 102 North Chestnut Street, Lumberton, NC 28358 Hosted by: Winyah Rivers Foundation, NC WARN and Center for Community Action More information: http://www.screeninghq.org/screenings/details/26545 Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/839279792771221/ Pittsboro/Chatham County Monday, November 10th, 7pm Chatham Community Library 197 N Carolina 87, Pittsboro, NC 27312 Hosted by: The Haw River Assembly, Cape Fear River Watch, Abundance NC More info: http://www.screeninghq.org/screenings/details/26544 Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1537978719773175/ Sylva/Jackson County Thursday, November 20th, 7pm Jackson County Public Library 310 Keener St, Sylva NC 28779 Hosted by: Canary Coalition, Jackson County NAACP, Watershed Association of Tuckaseegee River (WATR) More info: http://www.screeninghq.org/screenings/details/26545 Fayetteville Saturday, November 15th, 2pm Spinner's Restaurant 2805 Raeford Rd, Fayetteville, NC 28303 Hosted by: Sustainable Sandhills and Cumberland County Progressives Keep an eye out for other events that are in-the-works including: Carolina Beach, Goldsboro, New Bern, Salisbury, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Chapel Hill and at the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington.

Stokes County is one of fourteen sites in North Carolina, and one of hundreds across the country, where toxic coal ash is being stored. What is the impact on the communities that live next to these facilities? Watch this video to find out. [embed]http://youtu.be/rraUoadqr8o[/embed] Host a screening of this and three other short films on coal ash. Together the four films make up Coal Ash Stories. The series explores the public health concerns, policy issues, and ways communities are responding to the toxic threat of coal ash. Request your FREE Coal Ash Stories DVD today, and show it in your home or community. The timing is critical: December 19th is the EPA’s court-ordered deadline to finalize the first-ever federal safeguards for coal ash. North Carolina policymakers’ and regulators’ weak response to the Dan River spill is evidence that strong federal regulations are needed to protect our air and water. This toxic waste must be cleaned up, and power companies have to take steps to ensure that their waste pits are safe. Host a screening of Coal Ash Stories and urge the EPA to adopt strong coal ash regulations that protect communities and clean up the mess.

Working Films is partnering with Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, Tennessee NAACP, Tennessee Education Association, Common Cause, The Coalition for the Organizational Protection of People and Equal Rights and United for a Fair Economy to launch Together Tennessee, a screening series that will bring award-winning documentaries to six cities across the state this October. The series marks the beginning of a long range collaborative campaign to advance social and economic justice in Tennessee. Screenings will be free and open to the public and will be shown in: Nashville (Citizen Koch), Memphis (The Hand That Feeds), Knoxville (American Teacher), Chattanooga (Inequality for All), Jackson (Freedom Summer), and Johnson City (Blood on the Mountain). The participatory film tour will educate communities on the impacts of money in politics, an unfair tax system that burdens the poor, and on cuts to the state budget that are eliminating social safety nets and defunding public education. These issues will be spotlighted in the films and discussed in interactive post-screening programs designed to offer a forum for community members to share their perspectives, identify common ground, discuss potential solutions to the problems at hand, and become involved with the organizations leading the charge for change. Working Films is coordinating the Together Tennessee film tour with our national partner, United for A Fair Economy. Below is a list of screenings and clips of the films that will featured, organized by city. Johnson City: Blood on the Mountain: Tuesday October 14^th 2014, 7pm. Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 136 Bob Jobe Rd, Gray, TN 37615 Blood on the Mountain focuses on the environmental and economic injustice and corporate control in West Virginia and its rippling effect on all American workers. This film tells the story of a hard-working people who have historically had limited choices and have never benefited fairly from the rich natural resources of their land. This is a works in progress screening. Memphis: The Hand That Feeds: Wednesday October 15^th 2014, 6pm. The University of Memphis, 3720 Alumni Ave, Memphis, TN 38152 The Hand That Feeds trailer from Robin Blotnick on Vimeo. Shy sandwich-maker Mahoma and his undocumented immigrant coworkers set out to end abusive conditions at a New York restaurant chain. This epic power struggle turns a single city block into a battlefield in America's new wage wars. Nashville: Citizen Koch: Thursday October 16^th 2014, 7pm. United Auto Workers Headquarters, 6207 Centennial Blvd, Nashville, TN 37209 Set against the rise of the Tea Party in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, a citizen uprising to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker collides with the Tea Party-aligned “Americans for Prosperity,” a group founded and lavishly financed by two of the world’s richest men —David and Charles Koch. As Republican working class voters find themselves in the crosshairs of their own party and its billionaire backers, they are forced to choose sides. Jackson: Freedom Summer: Thursday October 16^th 2014, 6pm. Tennessee NAACP Headquarters: 118 N Church St, Jackson, TN 38301 Freedom Summer (Trailer) from Firelight Media on Vimeo. A look back at the summer of 1964, when more than 700 student activists took segregated Mississippi by storm, registering voters, creating freedom schools and establishing the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Chattanooga: Inequality for All: Friday October 17^th 2014, 7pm. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, University Center Auditorium, 642 E 5^th St., Chattanooga, TN 37403   Inequality for All is an intimate portrait of a man whose lifelong goal has been “protecting those who are unable to protect themselves.” Reich suggests that the massive consolidation of wealth by a precious few threatens the viability of the American workforce and the foundation of democracy itself. Knoxville: American Teacher: Monday October 20^th 2014, 5:30pm. Burlington Library, 4614 Asheville Hwy, Knoxville, TN 37914 Weaving interviews of policy experts and startling facts with the lives and careers of four teachers, American Teacher tells the collective story by and about those closest to the issues in our educational system -- the 3.2 million teachers who spend every day in classrooms across our country.