“Eroding History” tells the story of two Black communities on Deal Island, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, that are finding themselves at the intersection of sea level rise, historic racism, and the disappearance of Black communities. It is a climate justice story, made by two Black filmmakers and a Jewish grandchild of refugees. A deeply personal and moving story of a community striving to hold on to its culture, “Eroding History” is anything but dry.
“Eroding History” will be screened at the University of Maine on Tuesday, February 6, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. The thirty-minute documentary film will be followed by a panel featuring the film’s director (André Chung) and it’s co-writer & producer (Rona Kobell) and University of Maine Climate Scientist and Associate Professor of Paleoecology & Plant Ecology Jacqueline Gill, Ph.D. The panel will be moderated by Assistant Professor Haley Schneider, Ph.D. of the Department of Communication and Journalism. The film screening and panel events are open to the public.
The public screening of “Eroding History” on February 6, 2024, and related events, are supported in part by a grant from the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series Fund and a grant from the McGillicuddy Humanities Center at the University of Maine.
Panelists:
André Chung, Director of “Eroding History,” is an award-winning photojournalist and portrait photographer, who creates dynamic portraits and captures decisive moments that grab the viewers attention and asks themto take a deeper look. André is the recipient of the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Domestic Photography, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize five times while a staff photographer at The Baltimore Sun. In addition, he has also received the George Polk Award, and the Sigma Delta Chi award, and was twice named the Times Mirror Journalist of the Year.
Rona Kobell, Producer and co-writer of “Eroding History” is a journalist, film and radio producer, entrepreneur and professor with deep knowledge of environmental justice issues. She has covered the Chesapeake Bay and its people for 19 years, beginning at The Baltimore Sun, then at the Chesapeake Bay Journal, and most recently as the managing editor for Chesapeake Quarterly magazine. She is an adjunct professor at both Towson University and the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. For five years, she co-hosted and co-produced a Chesapeake Bay show on WYPR. She has written and produced three films, and her latest, “Eroding History,” premiered at Baltimore’s Senator Theatre in April 2023. In 2020, Rona co-founded the Environmental Justice Journalism Initiative with her longtime friend, Donzell Brown Jr. Kobell focuses her work on the intersection of climate change, historical racism, and land use policies that have harmed Black communities in rural areas.
Dr. Jacqueline Gill a paleoecologist and biogeographer who brings the perspectives of space and time to bear on questions in ecology and global change science. Dr. Gill’s work takes a community ecology approach to help understand how species and their interactions have responded to interacting drivers (like climate change and extinction) through time.
Dr. Haley Schneider is an Assistant Professor of Communication in the Department of Communication and Journalism. Dr. Schneider studies environmental communication and digital rhetoric. Dr. Schneider’s research focuses on how communities form and transform over time, especially in response to environmental threats. Schneider is a member of the Rural Community Health and Wellbeing Cluster and serves on the leadership team for the Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Fellowship (CAMF) program at the University of Maine.
Contact: Michael Socolow, Professor, Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Maine. Email: michael.socolow@maine.edu Telephone (207) 581-1942.
