Join Long Now Boston for a special screening of the acclaimed documentary Inundation District, followed by a Q&A with the director, Pulitzer Prize-winning filmmaker and Boston Globe reporter David Abel.
In a time of climate change and rising seas, one of the world's wealthiest, most-educated cities made a fateful decision to spend billions of dollars erecting a new waterfront district—on landfill, at sea level, and well after scientists began warning of the threats. The city called its new quarter the Innovation District. But with seas rising inexorably, others are calling it by a different name: Inundation District.
Abel's film raises urgent questions about long-term thinking and responsibility: How did a city with perhaps more climate scientists per capita than any other make this choice? Who should pay to defend a neighborhood built despite decades of warnings? And what happens when the flooding inevitably comes?
The Seaport's story reveals the collision between quarterly profits and generational consequences—a tension playing out in coastal cities worldwide. It's a stark illustration of what's at stake when we lose sight of the future we're building.
Discussion: Following the 79-minute film, director David Abel will join us for a Q&A exploring the themes of the documentary, the challenges he faces in his climate reporting, and what Boston's choices mean for our collective future. We’re proud and excited to welcome David to the Long Now Boston community.
An award-winning reporter, documentary filmmaker, and professor of journalism, David Abel has covered war in the Balkans, unrest in Latin America, national security issues in Washington D.C., terrorism in New York and Boston, and climate change and poverty throughout New England.
A longtime reporter at The Boston Globe, Abel is also a professor of the practice in the journalism department at Boston University.
Abel and his colleagues at the Globe won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings. His films have been broadcast on the Discovery Channel, PBS, BBC World News, and other major platforms, winning numerous awards. His most recent film, “Entangled,” won a Jackson Wild award, known as the Oscars of nature films, and was nominated for a national Emmy. Abel’s work has also won an Edward R. Murrow award, the Ernie Pyle award from the Scripps Howard Foundation, and Sigma Delta Chi awards for feature reporting and climate reporting.
David Abel
