Watch The Film
Swollen: Dispatches from the Flooded Midwest, is a three-part short film that identifies flooding as a result of climate change in the Black and Brown communities of Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee.
The film begins in Cleveland, where flooding has led to the development of new green infrastructure, while highlighting the inequalities and power dynamics at the center of this infrastructure and who is included and excluded from the decision-making process. In Milwaukee, the film explores Black and Brown residents mobilizing to introduce policy and infrastructure plans that address increased flooding and property loss, as they fight to reclaim their neighborhoods and their autonomy. Chapter Three: Detroit tells the harrowing story of flooding, property damage and the loss of precious memories from the perspective of Traci Rubin, as she sifts through her Detroit home and reckons with what was claimed by the flood.
CREDITS
Executive Producer – dream hampton
Executive Producer – Erik Paul Howard
Co-Executive Producer – Ever Bussey
CLEVELAND
Director – Christopher Webb
Resident – Vel Scott
Resident – Timothy Lewis
Resident – Matt Scharver
MILWAUKEE
Director – Joe Peregrine
Producer – Melanie Ariens
Milwaukee Water Commons – Brenda Coley
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center – Stephanie Mercado
Century City Triangle Neighborhood Association – Yvonne McCaskill
Nearby Nature MKE – Steven Hunter
DETROIT
Director – Desmond Love
Editor – Tonya Love-Joy
Assistant Producer – Chanel Davis
Resident – Traci Rubin
SPECIAL THANKS AND SUPPORT FROM
The Rockefeller Foundation
Hip Hop Caucus