The Marriage Fixer
City of Water New York City has over 500 miles of coastline and New York Harbor was once home to half of the world's oysters. Oysters are bivalves that filter water as they breathe and routinely chang…
The Marriage Fixer
City of Water New York City has over 500 miles of coastline and New York Harbor was once home to half of the world's oysters. Oysters are bivalves that filter water as they breathe and routinely change their sex to reproduce. While they might primarily be thought of as an hors d'oeuvre, removed from their natural context, they provide vital services to their ecosystem. They form reefs that provide habitat for other aquatic life, protect against storm surge events, and prevent and reverse coastal erosion. Before humans over harvested them, oysters filled the harbor, maintaining the water quality and feeding the indigenous Lenape people and New Amsterdam settlers alike as a popular staple. Today, New York's waterways are at an historic turning point that could make or break the city's habitability. Rising tides threaten the coast and climate change brings ever more intense superstorms. Every time it rains in New York City, the Combined Sewer Overflows spill unprocessed waste into the harbor, and cracks in the public transit infrastructure show themselves in severe flooding. In the face of worsening environmental crises, non-profit, for-profit, and political agencies are coming together to support sustainable solutions to keep the city livable in the long term. Despite the bleak outlook, people are do what they can to stave off the worst effects of climate change. Recent reports by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection show that the harbor's water is cleaner than it has been in over 100 years, largely due the efforts of environmental organizations and activists working for the future. Scenes of Intervention The Billion Oyster Project (BOP) is one organization who has turned to the oyster to shape the future. BOP partners with restaurants across NYC to collect discarded oyster shells otherwise destined for landfills. These collected shells provide a surface for new oysters to grow on and form reefs once they are seeded with baby oysters (spat) and restored back to the harbor. Another organization harnessing the benefits of the oyster is the landscape design firm SCAPE. SCAPE's Living Breakwaters project is working to build structures off the coast of Staten Island to protect the neighborhood of Tottenville, which itself has a rich history of oystering. In the culinary industry, farmers and food workers find community in the oyster. With his oyster cart, Moody "The Mothershucker" Harney is reclaiming oysters for the common diner, after long being a symbol of bourgeois food culture. Moody's cart takes inspiration from Thomas Downing, the Black Oyster King of New York from the 1800s. Former WNBA star Sue Wicks farms oysters and finds solace working on the water. Away from city life and unbound by gendered expectations, she feels a kinship with oysters, especially as they inspire new understandings of sex and gender. Holding Back The Tide celebrates the intricacies and interconnectedness of oysters, visiting scenes of intervention across all five boroughs and beyond, as it celebrates and considers the ticking environmental time-bomb that is New York City.
The Marriage Fixer
Drama
Film Details
City of Water New York City has over 500 miles of coastline and New York Harbor was once home to half of the world's oysters. Oysters are bivalves that filter water as they breathe and routinely change their sex to reproduce. While they might primarily be thought of as an hors d'oeuvre, removed from their natural context, they provide vital services to their ecosystem.
They form reefs that provide habitat for other aquatic life, protect against storm surge events, and prevent and reverse coastal erosion. Before humans over harvested them, oysters filled the harbor, maintaining the water quality and feeding the indigenous Lenape people and New Amsterdam settlers alike as a popular staple. Today, New York's waterways are at an historic turning point that could make or break the city's habitability.
Rising tides threaten the coast and climate change brings ever more intense superstorms. Every time it rains in New York City, the Combined Sewer Overflows spill unprocessed waste into the harbor, and cracks in the public transit infrastructure show themselves in severe flooding. In the face of worsening environmental crises, non-profit, for-profit, and political agencies are coming together to support sustainable solutions to keep the city livable in the long term.
Despite the bleak outlook, people are do what they can to stave off the worst effects of climate change. Recent reports by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection show that the harbor's water is cleaner than it has been in over 100 years, largely due the efforts of environmental organizations and activists working for the future. Scenes of Intervention The Billion Oyster Project (BOP) is one organization who has turned to the oyster to shape the future.
BOP partners with restaurants across NYC to collect discarded oyster shells otherwise destined for landfills. These collected shells provide a surface for new oysters to grow on and form reefs once they are seeded with baby oysters (spat) and restored back to the harbor. Another organization harnessing the benefits of the oyster is the landscape design firm SCAPE.
SCAPE's Living Breakwaters project is working to build structures off the coast of Staten Island to protect the neighborhood of Tottenville, which itself has a rich history of oystering. In the culinary industry, farmers and food workers find community in the oyster. With his oyster cart, Moody "The Mothershucker" Harney is reclaiming oysters for the common diner, after long being a symbol of bourgeois food culture.
Moody's cart takes inspiration from Thomas Downing, the Black Oyster King of New York from the 1800s. Former WNBA star Sue Wicks farms oysters and finds solace working on the water. Away from city life and unbound by gendered expectations, she feels a kinship with oysters, especially as they inspire new understandings of sex and gender.
Holding Back The Tide celebrates the intricacies and interconnectedness of oysters, visiting scenes of intervention across all five boroughs and beyond, as it celebrates and considers the ticking environmental time-bomb that is New York City..