Turkey Creek (working title)

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GFEM_196MB.mov

Images

Evans family archive

Derrick Evans on Turkey Creek

Budget

Raised to date: $422,411.00
Estimate to complete: $134,555.00
Total Estimated Budget: $556,966.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of

Status

Post Production

Media Type

Video

Project End Use

Key Personnel

Leah Mahan
Producer/Director

Filmmaker Leah Mahan started documenting the Turkey Creek story in 2001. Mahan's documentary SWEET OLD SONG aired on the PBS series P.O.V. in 2002 and 2003 and was honored by the Directors Guild of America and Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival. It was rebroadcast on the "P.O.V." series TRUE LIVES and on ITVS’ international series TRUE STORIES. SWEET OLD SONG was funded by ITVS, LEF Foundation and the National Black Programming Consortium. Mahan's first documentary, HOLDING GROUND: THE REBIRTH OF DUDLEY STREET, aired on public television in 1997. HOLDING GROUND was supported by the Ford Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation and was chosen by the Rockefeller Foundation's Viewing Race Project as one of the best independent films on the subjects of race and diversity. After Hurricane Katrina, the Casey Foundation commissioned an 11-minute version of HOLDING GROUND for use by community organizations on the Gulf Coast. A sequel to the documentary is currently in production. Mahan began working in documentary film in 1988 as a research assistant on the groundbreaking PBS series EYES ON THE PRIZE.

Gus Newport
Advisor

Community development expert Gus Newport is a former mayor with a passionate commitment to community-controlled neighborhood planning and development. He has lectured at numerous colleges and universities and served as a consultant to many foundations. He recently served as program consultant to the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation and was a MLK Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Newport was the first fellow of the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation and has served as a consultant to the Vanguard Public Foundation and East Bay Funders. He was executive director of the Institute of Community Economics; general manager of radio station KPFA in Berkeley, the oldest listener sponsored radio station in the country; Senior Fellow of the William Monroe Trotter Institute, University of Massachusetts at Boston; lecturer in residence at the University of California; faculty member at Portland State University and the Yale Community Fellows program. He has served as executive director of the Partnership for Neighborhood Initiative, Palm Beach County, FL; executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Boston, MA; and Mayor of Berkeley, CA from 1979-1986, during which time he served on the advisory board of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and chaired the sub-committees on Education and Employment. Gus has served on several national policy and education boards and United Nation committees, and was Vice-President of the World Peace Council from 1980-1986.

Jane Greenberg
Co-Producer
Filmmaker Jane Greenberg has been working on public television documentaries for over a decade. Most recently, she co-produced BUTTE, AMERICA, the saga of a hard rock mining town, which will air on this season's Independent Lens. She produced FENCELINE: A COMPANY TOWN DIVIDED with Slawomir Grunberg, which aired nationally on P.O.V. in 2002. She associate produced the ITVS-funded CHILDREN OF THE AMAZON in 2008; AMERICAN MASTERS special OROZCO: MAN OF FIRE in 2006; DISCOVERING DOMINGA, which aired on P.O.V. in 2002; and the Emmy Award winning SCHOOL PRAYER, which aired on P.O.V. in 2000. Complementing her work as a producer, Jane freelances as an editor, cameraperson, archival researcher and production manager. In addition to her work for hire, she is currently producing and directing a documentary profiling a mentally retarded man on Mississippi's death row. The film was awarded a grant by the Sundance Documentary Fund.

Funders

Name	Amount	Date
W.K. Kellogg Foundation	$374,000.00	04/09/2009
Just Media Fund	$7,500.00
Winograd-Hutner Family Fund	$5,000.00
Nu Lambda Trust	$5,000.00
LEF Moving Image Fund	$5,000.00
Diana Patrick	$4,000.00
Amelie Ratliff	$2,000.00
Individual donations	$5,210.00
Producer's Cash	$14,701.00

Location

2530 Tenth Street
Suite 8
Berkeley, 94710

See Google Maps

Short Synopsis

Threatened by sprawl and ravaged by Katrina, a Mississippi community settled by emancipated slaves fights for a just and sustainable future for the Gulf Coast.

Description/Treatment

Turkey Creek is a one-hour documentary about a group of determined Mississipians who struggle to save their endangered community in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Many residents of Turkey Creek are descendants of emancipated slaves who settled on the Gulf Coast in the 1860s. They have been stewards of Turkey Creek's rich wetland habitat for generations, and have farmed, fished, hunted and been baptized along its banks. Today, the Turkey Creek watershed lies at the center of Gulfport--Mississippi's fastest growing urban area. The encroaching sprawl fueled by the gaming industry in the 1990s and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 mobilize the members of this insular community and make them activists in the struggle to achieve a just and sustainable future for the Gulf Coast. Through the lens of one community, TURKEY CREEK will speak to diverse audiences about democracy and the value of cultural and environmental preservation.

Filmed in an intimate cinema verité style over the course of eight years, TURKEY CREEK chronicles the birth and growth of a grassroots movement. The story unfolds with the power of narrative drama, capturing the emotional ups-and-downs, confrontations and personal revelations of the main characters, including a young teacher who returns from the Northeast to protect the community settled by his ancestors; a grandmother-turned-activist who grew up in Mississippi under Jim Crow; a third-generation lawyer from a conservative family who has dedicated his practice to serving low-income clients and environmental causes; and an outspoken local radio personality.

Citizens of all ages, from teenagers to elders in their 90s, take part in protecting the community. They file lawsuits in defense of the watershed and galvanize the Turkey Creek community with live radio shows from the creek, faith-based environmental campaigns and cane-pole fishing contests. When the Army Corps of Engineers and EPA side with conservationists, it appears they may succeeded in creating a buffer zone around the historic community and protecting it from further development.

But when Hurricane Katrina hits, the community faces the unraveling of its hard-earned victory. Turkey Creek could now be sacrificed to an ambitious economic recovery plan transforming Gulfport. Community leaders must take their case to the U.S. Congress, national media, college campuses and communities coast to coast.

Although the dominant mode of shooting is observational, interviews are critical to story development and are filmed in the settings where people live and work. Aerial cinematography reveals the now-fragile connection between the community and the land it has been steward of for 150 years. A soaring bird's eye view glides over a dense, green coastal wetland oasis peppered with modest shotgun shacks, then lifts upward to reveal the clutter, noise and pollution of the surrounding highways, strip malls, airport and industrial canal. As we travel through the lush wetland by boat, the beauty and richness of its flora and fauna show viewers what is at stake in protecting this rare haven. Vintage portraits and recent snapshots--many faded or waterlogged after Katrina--offer evidence of the community's resilience as well as the endangered status of its history and memory. The documentary features popular and traditional music, including native Mississippi fife and drum music and modern blues.

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