A world premiere at DOC NYC and selection at Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival and many more festivals, Emily Packer’s Holding Back the Tide takes a poetic, queer perspective of New York’s oysters and their transformations in the face of an uncertain future. Picked up by Grasshopper Film, the documentary will open on Friday, Sept. 6th in New York (DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema) and Friday, Oct. 4th in Los Angeles (Laemmle Theatres) followed by select U.S. cities, and we’re pleased to exclusively debut the first trailer.
Here’s the synopsis: “Holding Back the Tide is an impressionistic hybrid documentary that traces the oyster through its many life cycles in New York, once the world’s oyster capital. Now their specter haunts the city through queer characters embodying ancient myth, discovering the overlooked history and biology of the bivalve that built the city. As environmentalists restore them to the harbor, we look to the oyster as a queer icon, entangled with nature, with much to teach about our continued survival.”
“As a non-binary queer filmmaker working with a subject that regularly changes its sex as part of its reproductive process, it was important for me to create a vision of the oysters’ cultural economy that celebrated the environmental heroism of the oyster through a queer perspective,” the director told Variety. “Not only are most of the characters and actors queer people, but they also come to see that their gender evolution and self-actualization are reflected in nature. The film sees this reflection as necessary for cultural transformation and building a sustainable future.”
See the exclusive trailer below.
