The slow-rolling disaster that has devastated what was the source of America's most celebrated oysters, will soon be known across the country. The story, in all its tragic complexity, was captured on film by Director Josh McLawhorn and entitled: "Unfiltered: The Truth About Oysters."
"In late 2018 when the producer of the film Chucha Barber approached me about directing this film and creating it with her, we thought it would be maybe a 30-minute TV program. As we got into it, we realized the story was so much larger than we could effectively tell in the 24 minutes of a half-hour TV program."
"Unfiltered" became a full-blown documentary. It was screened at more than 30 film festivals worldwide. It won 11 awards, including "Best Documentary" both at home and abroad. It garnered a Suncoast Regional EMMY Award. And on January 15th, it will make it broadcast premier on every PBS station in Florida. PBS will also make it available on its streaming platform.
"Having the film go national and be available for on-demand screening through PBS Passport is really, honestly, a surreal feeling for me."
But then the whole tale of how a once vibrant, prosperous seafood resource should essentially dry up in less than a generation has its own elements of surrealism.
"It was a very healthy, relatively untouched natural environment that created this very healthy estuary where you could harvest mullet, oysters and shrimp and all kinds of fish and large pelagic game fish. Those things have all declined as the coastline has been developed (and) as the Apalachicola, Flint and Chattahoochee rivers have been dammed up in many cases and a lot of that water has been siphoned off for other things that might be seen as more economically productive."
And because the near demise of the Gulf Coast's wild oyster beds has also stirred political accusations and cultural resentments, McLawhorn wanted the story to be presented with virtually no editorial bias. So it's a story that literally tells itself with no narration.
"We didn't want to put our spin as filmmakers on it. We didn't want you to get Josh and Chucha's opinion. We wanted you to hear the words straight from the people involved in the issue in one way or another, whether they're commercial seafood workers or aquaculture business owners."
There is a good reason, he says, why the situation has long been called another war between the states, as Florida, Georgia and Alabama feud over the water that flows southward towards the Gulf and the oyster beds that depend upon that water for their existence.
"More often than not, you'll often get a reaction from people and they'll say something about Georgia, or Atlanta: 'Atlanta's got all the water!' And that is absolutely part of the issue. It's a part of the issue that continues to get worse all the time. But that's definitely not the only factor that caused Apalachicola Bay to collapse."
To further complicate an already complex tale, the State of Florida will decide in 2025 whether to end its five-year ban on wild oyster harvesting. Even here, McLawhorn doesn't want to take sides. Although he hopes the final decision will be guided by all the bay health data that's been gathered by Florida State University.
"I think it should only be reopened if the population is healthy enough to sustain a wild harvest where every year the oysters reproduce - they produce - more than was taken."
McLawhorn insists there's hope for the future of the bay and its iconic bivalves.
He cites the recovery of other once-ravaged water bodies, like the Chesapeake Bay. And he hopes the film will also act as a cautionary tale.
"This is a story that's relevant not just to our area that the story focuses on, but really every coastal community around the world. Because a lot of the same pressures that caused the decline and collapse of Apalachicola's oyster reef are experienced really all over the world."
"Unfiltered: The Truth About Oysters" airs on all Florida PBS stations January 15th and available for streaming on PBS Passport.
