Our current film in production, Berryhill, is an environmental justice documentary about a Superfund site in a small, unincorporated town in Southwest Tulsa. According to Wikipedia, "Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The program is designed to investigate and cleanup sites contaminated with hazardous substances. Sites managed under this program are referred to as Superfund sites. There are 40,000 federal Superfund sites across the country, and approximately 1,300 of those sites have been listed on the National Priorities List (NPL). Sites on the NPL are considered the most highly contaminated and undergo longer-term remedial investigation and remedial action (cleanups).
The EPA seeks to identify parties responsible for hazardous substances released to the environment (polluters) and either compel them to clean up the sites, or it may undertake the cleanup on its own using the Superfund (a trust fund) and seek to recover those costs from the responsible parties through settlements or other legal means."
Berryhill will tell the story of the town and the people who lived there, especially those who experienced negative and sometimes fatal health effects from the toxic waste in their community, as well as explore the corporate greed involved in the production of toxic waste and the U.S. government's seeming inability to protect the environment, and especially, working class and poor communities.
In June, we interviewed our first citizen of Berryhill on camera. This past weekend (Saturday, October 14), we continued the interview with her on location in her old neighborhood which has been cleared and replaced with the new Gilcrease Expressway. We also interviewed a couple of other citizens in Chandler Park as well as took a tour of the grounds of the park with one of the citizens (Chandler Park is adjacent to the 69-acre toxic waste dump).
Scenes From the October 14, 2023 Interview Shoot
Other Berryhill News
The next steps for the Berryhill project will be to make more community connections. Additionally, another citizen will be interviewed this fall. An expert on the Superfund sites in Oklahoma will be interviewed this coming summer. Also in summer, historical artifacts (photos, video, ephemera) will be researched for use in the film, and an outline for the narration script will be created.
Fundraising for Berryhill Film
Owner of Mojo 2 Spare Productions and Director of Berryhill, Stephanie Lewis has been working on a Patreon site to support her project and future projects. The Patreon site will be rolled out in the near future. Funds will help produce independent film projects, specifically travel and marketing costs. There will be levels of subscriptions available with different rewards included in those support levels. Mojo 2 Spare Productions hope you will consider to be a part of telling stories that aren't often told. Keep an eye out for the rollout of the Mojo 2 Spare Productions' Patreon site.
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