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Film Screening: Eroding History

Film screening and panel discussion for the award-winning documentary Eroding History, which tells the story of Black communities on the Deal Island Peninsula.

Join us for a special screening of the film in the MLK Library auditorium that will be followed by a panel discussion featuring makers of the film Andre Chung, an in-demand news and portrait photographer who won the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Domestic Photography; West Baltimore filmmaker and journalist Sean Yoes; and longtime Chesapeake Bay chronicler Rona Kobell.

Check out the trailer and learn more about the panelists below.

Eroding History tells the story of two Black communities on the Deal Island Peninsula that are losing their land and their history due to the intersection of historical racism and modern climate changes. Eroding History is among the few Chesapeake Bay films that center Black communities at the forefront of climate change. Black people are often on the lowest land because that was the only land that was available to them. On the Eastern Shore, where everything is low, the lowest spot is a dangerous place. Rising water, saltwater intrusion, and marsh migration are endangering Black land at a rapid pace. That Black filmmakers are telling these stories is important, and EJJI is proud to provide a platform for telling and disseminating these films.

Director: André Chung

André Chung, is an award-winning photojournalist and portrait photographer. He is the recipient of the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Domestic Photography, and he has also received the George Polk Award, and the Sigma Delta Chi award. A longtime award-winning photojournalist at The Baltimore Sun for more than a decade, he was twice named the Times Mirror Journalist of the Year. Based in the Baltimore/Washington area, André is known for dynamic portraits and decisive moments, with an ability to get to the heart of a story and tell it vividly. Recent clients include Apple, The Washington Post, NBC News Pictures, and The Atlantic. André was one of a select group of photojournalists chosen in 2009 and 2013 to work on The Official Inaugural Book for President Barack Obama. André’s work is housed in the permanent collections at the History Miami Museum and the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Producer: Rona Kobell

Rona Kobell is co-founder of the Environmental Justice Journalism Initiative. She has covered the Chesapeake Bay and its people for 19 years, beginning at The Baltimore Sun, then at the Chesapeake Bay Journal, and most recently as the managing editor for Chesapeake Quarterly magazine. She is an adjunct professor at Loyola University, Towson University, and the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, where she recently earned her MA in Journalism. For five years, she co-hosted and co-produced a Chesapeake Bay show on WYPR. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Grist, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, National Parks Magazine, and many other publications. Her work has won two APEX Awards for communication excellence; one MARCOM Platinum Award for research-paper writing; the Lowell Thomas Award, Bronze, for national environmental travel reporting; the Rachel Carson Award for Women Greening Journalism from the National Audubon Society; and several honors from the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association. Baltimore magazine named her Best Bay Watcher in 2015. She has written and produced three films, including Eroding History. Rona was named a 2023-2024 SNF AGORA Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, where she will continue to work on the topics explored in Eroding History.

Producer: Sean Yoes

Sean Yoes is a proud son of West Baltimore who has worked in television, film, and newspapers during a career in media that has spanned 30 years. He has been honored for his work by Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore Magazine, The Baltimore Sun, the Association of Black Media Workers, the National Newspaper Publishers Association, and the Maryland, Delaware, Washington D.C. Press Association. He is the former Baltimore editor of the AFRO American Newspapers and author of Baltimore After Freddie Gray: Real Stories From One of America's Great Imperiled Cities. Yoes is the host of the new podcast, Sean Yoes Live From West Baltimore, and founder of the Leslie Maureen Yoes Institute for Journalism. His new film, Disruption: Baltimore’s Highway To Nowhere, was released in 2022.

Moderator: Lisa Goodnight

Lisa Goodnight is the Audience Engagement Manager at Nature Forward, which has the distinction of being the longest-running, independent environmental organization in the Capital Region; first established in 1897 as the Audubon Society of the District of Columbia. Lisa’s responsibilities include writing, researching, developing outreach strategies, and creating social media content. Over the course of her career, she advocated for fairness on behalf of women and journalists of color and worked as a freelance writer. Her byline has appeared in Poynter.org, Black Enterprise, and The Guardian. A former newspaper reporter, Lisa enjoys her family, long walks in nature with friends, al fresco dining, and stargazing. A graduate the University of Maryland, College Park, Lisa majored in Journalism and minored in Spanish.

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