Acclaimed film Inundation District showing in Melrose Aug 6th

Melrose, MA- On Tuesday, August 6th the acclaimed film Inundation District will be shown in Melrose with Q&A to follow from Filmmaker David Abel. The film starts at 7 pm. Doors open at 6:30 pm.

The film will be shown at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Melrose, at 70 W Emerson Street. The event is hosted by the Melrose UU Climate Action Team, Friends of Wakefield’s NEMT Forest, and The Urban Biodiversity Project. Proceeds benefit area conservation efforts and biodiversity and climate education.

Inundation District premiered at the GlobeDocs Film Festival in November 2023. The film has been shown in screenings as nearby as Boston and as far away as California. This will be the film’s first showing in the Metro North Boston area. See what the filmmakers’ reporting reveals about the Commonwealth’s priorities as we confront changing climate and rising sea level. The 79-minute documentary film is a production of The Boston Globe.

SYNOPSIS: In a time of rising seas and intensifying storms, one of the world’s wealthiest, most-educated cities made a fateful decision to spend billions of dollars erecting a new district along its coast — on landfill, at sea level. Unlike other places imperiled by climate change, this neighborhood of glass towers housing some of the world’s largest companies was built well after scientists began warning of the threats, including many at its renowned universities. The city, which already has more high-tide flooding than nearly any other in the United States, called its new quarter the Innovation District. But with seas rising inexorably, and at an accelerating rate, others are calling the neighborhood by a different name: Inundation District.

Tickets are available online for a suggested donation, and will be available at the door based on availability.

Abel has spoken of his impetus to make the film after writing extensively on the subject of developers and politicians overlooking the new neighborhood’s rising tides and climate risks.

“A few years ago, after writing a succession of stories about the dire projections of rising seas in the Boston Globe, where I have covered environmental issues for more than a decade as a reporter, I felt like words in the paper weren’t enough to convey the gravity of the threats. To get people to pay attention, I thought it might help to tell the story in a different way—one that would help people visualize or comprehend what’s coming.”

For more information and to reserve tickets please visit the event webpage at https://melrose.brownpapertickets.com/