Out of the Mud

We are continuing to document the recovery of the Northern Rivers in the wake of the 2022 floods. Act 2 and 3 of our film focus on emergent solutions and we plan to cover some really exciting and innovative work that is being done across the region. Some of these solutions have been slow to roll out and as such, we are waiting until these are live so that we can begin capturing them.

With a generous donation from Shark Island Foundation in May of 2023, we were able to begin re-cutting a new sizzle that is more representative of our full film’s narrative. This is still in the works and in progress. Given the nature of this project and the longitudinal case study we are endeavoring to undertake of a region recovering after a climate catastrophe, we do need continued financial support in order to keep on this story.

We have recently teamed up with an amazing production company and hopefully soon will have more updates to share.

Recently film director Olivia Katz was interviewed by the Bangalow Herald on film ‘Out of the Mud’.

Excerpt: Like many locals, Olivia Katz felt deeply impacted by last year’s floods. The US-born, Bangalow-based photographer and filmmaker hit the streets as soon as she could to help deliver supplies, raise money and organize shelter for the people of the Northern Rivers who’d been displaced by the natural disaster. After a few weeks of volunteering Olivia realized she needed to focus her efforts on documenting the region’s recovery and the lessons which were emerging. “The story was big and layered, complex and emotional, and I knew that film was going to be the best medium to capture it,” she says. “I had made a few shorter film pieces before, but this was my first big foray into making a feature length documentary.” Out of the Mud follows a handful of local stories including a First Nation’s perspective as the bedroom of the narrative, weaving in the broader themes of disaster preparedness, climate change and Caring for Country.

Olivia grew up near Washington DC and moved to Australia in late 2019, just as the black summer bushfires were unfolding. “I travelled south to Cobargo, Mogo and Bermagui to document the devastation and attempt to understand what had happened,” she says. “That trip shook me to my core. The scares those fires had left in their wake were both deep and wide. My heart ached for the wildlife, landscape and affected communities who had all lost so much.” Moved to find a platform for the kind of stories she wanted to tell, she created The Heart Atlas— a media company centered on the climate, the environment, and social justice.

The bushfires compelled me to learn more about climate change, and the more I learned the harder it became to think about much else,” she says. “So when the floods hit, it was with a heavy heart that I again recognised the urgency of what we are collectively facing. That deep dark, muddy water that rushed down mountains, pushing homes of their stumps, and sent thousands to their roofs, felt like nothing short of a war-cry from Mother Nature. The planet is speaking to us through these events and begging us to wake up and do things differently.”

To read full article: https://issuu.com/bangalowherald/docs/the_herald_issue_75 [page 14-15]