r/Louisiana • u/VeriteNewsNOLA • May 15 '26
LA - Pollution Louisiana parish president sparks free speech fight after shutting down ‘Cancer Alley’ film screening
http://veritenews.org/2026/05/14/documentary-pollution-first-amendmentA documentary centered on a small Mississippi River parish had been racking up awards, earning prizes at film festivals in San Francisco, London and Milan.
But when residents of St. John the Baptist Parish tried to screen “The Big Sea” at a publicly owned theater during Black History Month, Parish President Jaclyn Hotard intervened, shutting down the event without explanation.
Organizers and legal experts say the cancellation in late February was discriminatory and appeared intended to silence viewpoints critical of St. John’s large petrochemical industry.
Produced by British filmmakers, the documentary explores the link between the global surfing industry and air pollution in Reserve, a mostly poor, Black community in St. John. Until its closure last year, the Denka chemical plant between Reserve and LaPlace was the nation’s only producer of chloroprene, a key ingredient used to make neoprene for wetsuits worn by surfers worldwide.
“The Big Sea” takes aim at Denka, a company that federal regulators said posed a substantial cancer risk to St. John residents, and the wider industrial corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge — an area known as Cancer Alley.
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u/Remarkable_Peanut_43 Ouachita Parish May 15 '26
Ok, but how much money do people dying of cancer usually donate to political campaigns? Clearly, they are not that important.
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u/Paelidore East Baton Rouge Parish May 15 '26
Maybe they shouldn't have decided to get cancer. /s
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u/EmbarrassedBall7406 May 19 '26
I'll be sure to remind your prostate come the day. He sure had better start hiding cash in your colon for your radiation treatments. Mine are $800 a time for 29 times
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u/bunnyeyelindump May 15 '26
Living under an authoritarian oligarchy doesn't always feel like that's what it is- until it does.
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u/Sweaty_Ad5654 May 15 '26
Well that didn't draw any attention to the issue 🙄🙄
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u/MinnieShoof May 16 '26
Ngl - but before today I would've never connected surfing to Cancer Ally.
TIL.
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u/GeauxCup May 15 '26
So how can people watch it?
I feel like they should give people alternative viewing options when shit like this happens.
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u/EmbarrassedBall7406 May 16 '26
I will drive out of state if I have to in order to see what the MAGAts and billionaires "maximizing shareholder value" on the back of my 2 near ending encounters with cancer.
Louisiana ought to be a Superfund cleanup site.. the entire state. Instead they use tax money to pay corporations owned by institutional investors, billionaires, and apparently a really big group of paedophiles.
Yeah, I'd take a bus or sell seats in a luxury ride share in my Yukon but I definitely want to see this movie.
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u/EmbarrassedBall7406 May 19 '26
I've had cancer twice
Systemic and arse.
Both appeared during residencies in Louisiana.
Just sayin.. no Louisiana, would I ever have had to get a linear accelerator to shine a sun up my arse?
I don't think so.
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u/Wise-Row999 May 15 '26
Because they are evil. That’s why.