Join us in the Lapis Center for the Arts for a screening of the documentary Hollow Tree followed by a conversation with the film’s leading subjects Mekenzie Fanguy, Annabel Pavy and Tanielma DaCosta (moderated by Kimbrielle Boult, NOMA’s Community Engagement Coordinator) on the creation and impact of the film.

Hollow Tree follows three teenagers coming of age in their sinking homeland of Louisiana. For the first time, they notice the Mississippi River’s engineering, stumps of cypress trees, and billowing smokestacks. Their different perspectives—as Indigenous, white, and Angolan young women—shape their story of the climate crisis.

This program is free and open to the public. Registration is highly encouraged.

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About the Film

Still from “Hollow Tree” by Kira Ackerman

Hollow Tree, a 73-minute award-winning documentary directed by Kira Ackerman and produced by Monique Walton and Chachi Hauser, invites three young women to learn with the director, filmmaking team, and their respective communities. Mekenzie Fanguy (Houma, Louisiana) was born on coastal bayous and is a member of the United Houma Nation; Annabelle Pavy (Lafayette, Louisiana) is from a mostly white community, where climate change is largely viewed as a myth; and Tanielma DaCosta (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) immigrated from Angola, Africa when she was 6. They travel to different sites along the Mississippi River, where they engage in dialogue with engineers, activists, and Indigenous leaders. As these young women notice their surroundings, they begin to imagine Louisiana’s past—its history of slavery, Indigenous dispossession, and colonization—and, by extension, Louisiana’s future, which they will experience and help to shape.

Kira Akerman is a documentary filmmaker and educator. Kira has a masters in Learning, Innovation, Technology, and Design from Harvard University, and is currently a fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Her film Hollow Tree won a Jury Prize at the New Orleans Film Festival, and an award for Best Documentary at Chicago’s International Children’s Festival. Kira’s essay, “Filmmaking as a Classroom: A Documentary Practice for the Climate Crisis” (Southern Cultures) describes her participatory filmmaking process. Her work has been supported by the International Documentary Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sundance Institute, the Redford Center, and others. Kira was selected for the 2019 PBS Wyncote Fellowship, the 2019 Sundance Talent Forum Fellowship, the 2020 Gotham Documentary Lab, and the 2021 Climate Story Lab. Kira’s short films have been featured in The Atlantic, The Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane University, the Ford Foundation Gallery, the Camden International Film Festival, MOMA, the Rotterdam Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, and others. Kira has collaborated with Ripple Effect, a water literacy educational nonprofit, and the former Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University, an interdisciplinary, place-based institute that promotes the understanding of New Orleans and the Gulf South region.

Tanielma DaCosta is one of the three protagonists of Hollow Tree. She was born in Angola and raised in Baton Rouge, LA. She is a senior at Louisiana State University studying computer & electrical engineering, international studies, and French. Along with being an environmental educator, she is developing sustainable battery technology as a member of the Nano Electronic Structures and Technology Lab led by Dr. Theda Daniels-Race.

Many of Hollow Tree’s screenings include accompanying learning experiences for audiences, which have been created in partnership with the Climate Museum, Columbia’s Climate School, the Museum of the Moving Image, the University of Mississippi, and the Small Center at Tulane University.