By Anna Barnes
An incomplete, 10-minute version of the documentary I’m co-directing, WealthWashed, was accepted into Skyfire Film Festival’s inaugural environmental film fest in Arizona.
The project received financial support from the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.
WealthWashed is a documentary that traces Michigan’s complex relationship with its greatest asset: water. What begins as a story of recreation on the lakes shifts into a deeper look at access, equity and the pressures of climate migration.
Through voices from across the state, the film uncovers how climate gentrification is already taking shape in Michigan and why protecting our water is key to becoming a true model for climate resilience.
After the screening of WealthWashed, Anna Barnes, one of the documentary’s directors, participated in a Q&A session with the audience.
I was invited by the organizers of the Skyfire Film Festival in Arizona to participate in a March Q&A session about the film.
In addition to myself, the WealthWashed team consists of co-director Meg Vandermark, videographer Milo Lucas, videographer Yixuan Li and Lindsay Tague, the editor and producer.
WealthWashed was made possible by Professor of Practice Troy Hale’s Advanced Documentary Filmmaking course at Michigan State University.
You can check out our documentary website here and our instagram here. We will be announcing screenings in the East Lansing area on these platforms soon.
The festival was the perfect place to screen WealthWashed as some parts of Arizona are predicted to be uninhabitable in the next 20 to 40 years due to heat. Another extreme weather hazard is drought, with Arizona’s Lower Salt Watershed experiencing partial drought 87% of the time since 2,000 according to Climate Check data.
This also means when it does rain, it floods quickly as the ground cannot absorb the water fast enough. These climate hazards are what makes climate migration a pressing issue, even if large- scale migration is not happening in the United States. Yet.
The film festival was a three-day event with screenings in Phoenix and Mesa. WealthWashed was screened at the Beth Hebrew Synagogue community center in the heart of Phoenix.
Anna Barnes with the Skyfire Film Festival lanyard provided by organizers in Phoenix
While there I was given flowers, a tote bag, a sweatshirt and a t-shirt for attending as a filmmaker.
I got to attend thoughtful and impactful screenings of documentaries focused on pressing environmental issues. I met filmmakers from California all the way to Virginia who directed a wide array of films under the ever-expanding net of environmental issues. Pesticides, fishery observers, farming struggles and many more topics were given deep dives by these filmmakers, and I was introduced to issues I’d never heard of.
It was well-organized for an inaugural festival and drew 1,347 attendees. The organizers said they will be continuing the festival in the coming years.
The WealthWashed team began filming in October and encountered many bumps along the way to creating an emotional, informative and hard-hitting documentary. We wanted to highlight diverse perspectives as many groups will be affected differently by climate migration and change. Almost all of our sources come from groups that will be disproportionately and adversely affected in the future.
One of our interviewees, Saleh Ahmed, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Michigan State has first-hand experience from when he lived in Bangladesh and talked about that on camera. We hope to be finished with a full-length version by mid-April.
Our film has now been accepted into three film festivals, two international and the Skyfire festival. WealthWashed has also been nominated for the Student Emmy Awards.
To see film festivals show interest in our short, unfinished version confirms to me that we have an impactful story to tell.
We’re grateful for the support of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and the College of Communication Arts and Sciences.
