Award-winning documentarian Liz Miller will be bringing her “Shore Line Project” to ETSU’s Reece Museum on Sept. 24.
According to a press release distributed by Mary B. Martin School of the Arts, the project, which runs until Oct. 5, features video and educational material from nine countries documenting the beauty and concern regarding the world’s coastlines as well as an interactive documentary, dubbed the story book by Miller.
The storybook, will feature 43 stories that profile the work of artists, architects, city planners, educators, scientists and youth organizations that are confronting the challenges the coast presents.
“There has never been a better time to rethink our relationship to our shorelines,” the Concordia University professor said.
The shorelines documented range from the coastal mangroves of New Zealand, fishing communities in India, Chilean glaciers, a barrier island in New Jersey, pollution filled waters in the Andaman Islands, a river in Jakarta, Bangladesh and Vancouver, the Everglades, Arctic coral reef’s, Carti Sugdup, Panama and the nation of Salish.
Miller will also give a talk at the Reece Museum on Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. Following the talk, there will be a reception coupled with a conversation with students, Radio-TV-Film, Sustainability and the Honors College and event co-sponsors with ETSU’s Mary B. Martin School of the Arts.
The reason for making the project so interactive and digital is to give attendees a very personal experience. The main goal of the project, however, is education –– not only on ecological issues facing coastal communities, but also on filmmaking and how Miller came to create The Shore Line Project.
The videos are formatted into small “classroom-sized bites” and come with an accompanying one-page study guide.
“I might not do this for every project, but climate change is basically an issue that’s impacting all of us, and it’s an issue that’s going to ask us to think outside the box,” Miller said in the release.
East Tennessee may not be located near a traditional ocean coastline, but there are plenty of lakes and rivers that affect East Tennessee’s economy and the health of residents. This, Miller says, is reason for East Tennessean’s to be involved in ‘The Shore Line’ effort and “environmental justice”.
“The Tennessee River [Knoxville] includes more than 40,000 square miles of watershed and 11,000 miles of shoreline,” Miller said in the press release. “That river supplies drinking water, it sustains habitats for native plants, offers fishing and swimming, and it also enables a lot of the trade that moves throughout the state.”
“Shorelines are powerful, disruptive and awe-inspiring … a front line for disasters, they are also a front line of resistance,” Miller said.
