Coastal
Station 15
A tour of a New Orleans pumping station as seen through the eyes of Chasity, a teenage resident of the city.
Published: July 3, 2019
Last Updated: October 2, 2019
Station 15
Directed by Kira Akerman; co-directed by Sophie Tintori
2017; 15 min.
Often labeled a “sinking city,” New Orleans is a place where flooding occurs all too regularly. Water pumping stations strategically placed throughout the city serve as the front line of defense. The film portrays a day in the life of the DPS 6 pump station (formerly the biggest pump station in the world) through the eyes of Chasity Hunter, a teenager from the surrounding neighborhood, who interviews geographer Richard Campanella of Tulane University, geomorphologist Denise Reed of the Water Institute for the Gulf, and pumping station operator James Taylor in an effort to understand the ways New Orleans coexists with water.
Director Kira Akerman’s first film, Elnora, was supported by the Tribeca Film Institute and premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival (2016). Akerman has worked in production for TIME Inc. and Court 13. Co-director Sophie Tintori holds a PhD in biology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The WaterWays films are made possible by a grant to the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities from the Walton Family Foundation to support a multi-year initiative to document the issues facing Louisiana’s coast.
