Save the Levees, Save the Future!

Post date: Jun 5, 2014 3:39:00 PM

This movie trailer is a short preview of a longer film to be released in late summer 2014. The Class of 2014 at Shawnee High School in Wolf Lake, Illinois, under the direction of social science teacher Jamie Nash-Mayberry, partnered with students from the College of Mass Communications & Media Arts, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, members of the Civic Communications Collective & Imagining Geographies initiative, in it’s Voices of Southern Illinois series, to create this film entitled Save the Levees, Save the Future. The film was produced to encourage local, state, and federal leaders to direct more funding to repair and upgrade the levees that protect the communities of the Shawnee School District. The entire 60 mile long district lies completely in the floodplain, and the levees, alone, protect residents from the mighty Mississippi River. However, the levees are deteriorating at a rate that leads geologists to refer to them as ticking time bombs, in anticipation of the imminent failure. The hope is that through this film leaders will see why this area is worth saving from both an economic and emotional standpoint, and direct more money to repair the levees of Southern Illinois. Student involvement included collection and analysis of documents; interviews of community leaders and residents who live along the river from Grand Tower to East Cape; videography, and assisting in editing. To learn more about the activism of students participating in the Levee Project, visit http://www.shawneedistrict84.com/Nashberry/LeveeSummitNews.html

Pease share this trailer to help spread the word. The students hope it will go viral.