“Once a Braided River” Documentary Comes to St Johns
The Friends of Baltimore Woods are thrilled to co-sponsor the showing of the “Once a Braided River” documentary at St Johns Cinema this month. It will play one night only on Tuesday September 12, at 7pm. A panel discussion follows the 53 minute film.
For thousands of years the North reach of the Willamette River was a braided waterway of shallow channels and islands, rich in biodiversity and a home to many indigenous communities.
Today, after years of human engineering of this natural riparian habitat, the area is designated an Industrial Sanctuary, and a Superfund Site. Along a six mile stretch of Portland Harbor, hundreds of aging tanks store over 300 million gallons of volatile fossil fuels, which is 90% of the state’s liquid fossil fuel inventory, on top of major earthquake fault zones.
“Once a Braided River,” a new documentary by Barbara Bernstein, focuses on the part of Portland that most Portlanders don’t know about or ignore. It braids together the strands of many issues that face us – climate chaos, rivers contaminated with toxic pollutants, fish and wildlife brought to the brink of extinction by these perilous practices, and the dire hazards of storing immense amounts of explosive fossil fuels upon liquefaction zones underlain by major fault lines along the shorelines of our Willamette River.
The film begins with the story of the river before it was transformed into a Superfund Site and features community groups and activists working to replace the current Industrial Sanctuary with a green working waterfront defined by good jobs, clean energy, and healthy ecosystems. The documentary explores a vision to reclaim this stretch of river as a place where people and wildlife who depend upon the river for their homes, jobs and migration routes can thrive.
Barbara Bernstein, the producer of the film, is a local, award-winning independent audio engineer, musician, and composer with 27 years experience in creating radio documentaries, audio art, theater, dance scores and sound design. She specializes in reporting on environmental, social justice and human rights issues. This film is critical for beginning the conversation about long term solutions for the Willamette River.
At the Cinema 21 showing of this film last May, panel discussion member Bob Sallinger reminded the audience that people can bring positive changes successfully if we gather and work together.
Tickets are available for purchase on this link. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Bob Sallinger, Sarah Taylor, John Wasiutynski and Jay Wilson, who are featured in the film, and moderated by Barbara Bernstein.
This event is co-sponsored by the Braided River Campaign, Friends of Baltimore Woods, Columbia Riverkeeper, Willamette Riverkeeper, KBOO Community Radio, 350PDX and Oregon PSR. Artwork: Kandace Manning. Article written by Barbara Bernstein and Lisa Manning.
“Once a Braided River” at the St Johns Cinema.
[ Tuesday, September 12th at 7PM ]