What We Do to Nature, We Do to Ourselves
Raised in the small town of Huron, Ohio, director Andrea Bowers spent her childhood on the shores of Lake Erie, connecting to the lake itself like a member of her family to be cared for, cherished, and protected. Yet, Lake Erie and its watershed are abused and endangered by corporate practices such as contaminant dumping, toxic runoff from industrial farming, and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO).
Filmed throughout the Maumee River Watershed mainly focused in Williams County, Northwest Ohio, the footage including chicken, hog and cattle CAFO’s along with the nearby creeks, streams, rivers and wildlife. Documented are many massive manure lagoons that hold the liquid manure that is sprayed onto fields to eventually enter the watershed. This manure rich water has high levels of potassium and phosphorus creating algae blooms that lead to fish die-offs and the poisoning of indigenous species, cities cutting off water to residents, or states having to close fisheries and beaches.
Interviewed in the film are CELDF (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund) members, Tish O’Dell and Terry Lodge. CELDF is a non-profit public interest law firm providing free and affordable services to communities facing threats to their local environment and quality of life. We also interviewed Sherry Flemming, a local farmer and environmentalist who stands up for the health and rights of her local community. The Hug Family, three generations of farmers, touchingly speaks to the struggles with state and government policies and the high cost of equipment to keep a family tradition alive and yet grapple with the ethics of contemporary corporate farming. Ken Herman, a small farmer practicing farming techniques passed down to him from previous generations, shares his beautiful farm and herd, which is GMO-, herbicide-, and pesticide-free, with us.
The footage captured is filled with sublime imagery of nature and farmland. This film's key focus is the irony of what this beauty hides and what is so hidden by the global corporate farm industry. Amateur videographer, Carl Rockwood Jr, documented as many industrial farms in the area as he could, giving his wisdom, humor and insight. His footage reveals the true devastation to the local communities.
What We Do to Nature, We Do to Ourselves demands justice for the Great Lakes, urging us to prioritize the preservation of our natural ecology over industrialization and capitalism.
Country of Origin: United States
ANDREA BOWERS, Director
Filmed throughout the Maumee River Watershed mainly focused in Williams County, Northwest Ohio, the footage including chicken, hog and cattle CAFO’s along with the nearby creeks, streams, rivers and wildlife. Documented are many massive manure lagoons that hold the liquid manure that is sprayed onto fields to eventually enter the watershed. This manure rich water has high levels of potassium and phosphorus creating algae blooms that lead to fish die-offs and the poisoning of indigenous species, cities cutting off water to residents, or states having to close fisheries and beaches.
Interviewed in the film are CELDF (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund) members, Tish O’Dell and Terry Lodge. CELDF is a non-profit public interest law firm providing free and affordable services to communities facing threats to their local environment and quality of life. We also interviewed Sherry Flemming, a local farmer and environmentalist who stands up for the health and rights of her local community. The Hug Family, three generations of farmers, touchingly speaks to the struggles with state and government policies and the high cost of equipment to keep a family tradition alive and yet grapple with the ethics of contemporary corporate farming. Ken Herman, a small farmer practicing farming techniques passed down to him from previous generations, shares his beautiful farm and herd, which is GMO-, herbicide-, and pesticide-free, with us.
The footage captured is filled with sublime imagery of nature and farmland. This film's key focus is the irony of what this beauty hides and what is so hidden by the global corporate farm industry. Amateur videographer, Carl Rockwood Jr, documented as many industrial farms in the area as he could, giving his wisdom, humor and insight. His footage reveals the true devastation to the local communities.
What We Do to Nature, We Do to Ourselves demands justice for the Great Lakes, urging us to prioritize the preservation of our natural ecology over industrialization and capitalism.
Country of Origin: United States
ANDREA BOWERS, Director
Los Angeles based artist Andrea Bowers (b. 1964, Ohio) has been recording and amplifying the work of activists present and past for more than two decades. Her multi-media practice includes drawing, video, sculpture, and installation work that foregrounds the experience of the people who dedicate their time and energy to the struggle for gender, racial, environmental, labor, and immigration justice and those who are directly affected by systemic inequality.
Over time, her different bodies of work have become a document of the changing language, prerogatives, and dynamics of social justice movements. In 2021 a major mid-career survey of Bowers' work curated by Michael Darling and Connie Butler opened at the MCA Chicago and traveled to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2022.
Other recent solo exhibitions include "Grief and Hope," Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany and "Light and Gravity," Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany. In September 2022, Bowers opened a solo exhibition including both new and existing work at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Milano as part of an exhibition program organized by the Fondazione Furla. Bowers is represented by Vielmetter Los Angeles, Andrew Kreps Gallery, Kaufmann Repetto, and Jessica Silverman Gallery.