Private Project

A Drop in the Harbor

Environmental hopefuls work to restore oysters to New York Harbor and rehabilitate the local waterways, but the task ahead of them is both tedious and monumental.

  • Emily Packer
    Director
  • Ben Still
    Producer
  • John Marty
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Genres:
    Experimental, Environmental
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 49 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 15, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Emily Packer

Emily Packer is an experimental non-fiction filmmaker with an interest in border culture and geography, currently working on a hybrid film about oysters under her production company Marginal Gap Films. She was a fellow in the 2018-2019 Collaborative Studio at UnionDocs in Brooklyn, and is a proud alumna of the anomalous Hampshire College. Her work has been screened across the country, including at Anthology Film Archives, BlackStar Film Festival, DOCNYC, and others including a three-day border art event that she organized in San Diego-Tijuana called “Arte on the Line”. In addition to her independent work, Emily is a freelance editor, producer, and serves on programming committees for film festivals in New York City. Emily collects voicemails for future use; consider yourself notified.

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Director Statement

A crew of workers drops a series of large containers into New York Harbor. A group of volunteers labor meticulously to construct cumbersome metal cages. A truck crosses the river to dump hundreds of thousands of discarded shells in a pile for recycling. These three scenes -- industrial and surprisingly evocative -- confront viewers with the magnitude of the long-term ecological project of oyster restoration. This film forces viewers to experience the painstaking and detailed processes required to achieve this lofty environmental goal and sheds light on the motivation behind the restoration. We are interested in exploring the optimism necessary to dedicate one’s time to a cause that inches all-too-slowly toward an imagined future of a sustainable New York City. A Drop In The Harbor is a short film made as part of a feature-length hybrid documentary, Holding Back The Tide (forthcoming in 2022), which prismatically examines oysters in New York City and expands on these themes.