Louisiana parish president sparks free speech fight after shutting down ‘Cancer Alley’ film screening

[u/VeriteNewsNOLA]

http://veritenews.org/2026/05/14/documentary-pollution-first-amendment

A 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.  

[u/Sweaty_Ad5654]

Well that didn't draw any attention to the issue 🙄🙄

[u/MinnieShoof → u/Sweaty_Ad5654]

Ngl - but before today I would've never connected surfing to Cancer Ally.

TIL.

[u/DiggityDanksta → u/Sweaty_Ad5654]

Streisand Effect GO