Emily’s films have been showcased at several venues and festivals, including Anthology Film Archives, BlackStar Film Festival, DOCNYC, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Arte on the Line, a multi-day art event she helped organize at the San Diego-Tijuana border. She was a 2018-19 Collaborative Studio Fellow at UnionDocs in Brooklyn and helps with programming for film festivals in New York City. She also teaches digital editing at her alma mater, Hampshire College. In this interview, Emily shares with us her inspirations for the film, why oysters are important, and her vision for the future of documentary filmmaking. 

When did you know you wanted to become a filmmaker, especially one that makes experimental non-fiction?

I was drawn to storytelling when I took a media course at my public high school. I had been involved in environmental activism as a teen, and when I discovered that I loved putting together pieces to tell a coherent story, I thought I had found the perfect medium for my message. Attending Hampshire College opened my eyes to the expansive possibilities within the documentary tradition. As my perspective evolved, my films started to take experimental form to keep up with the complexity of the subjects that interested me.

I am really inspired by filmmakers who tell stories in unique and creative ways. What first drew you to the story about the oysters in New York Bay?

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, in 2012, the L train – a major line in Brooklyn – was shut down to repair damage caused by the hurricane. There were plenty of local political issues to navigate that I won’t bore you with, but basically, a shorter-term solution was accepted in lieu of a longer-term solution that would take more time to implement. Tons of material and economic resources were being poured underneath the streets to keep the city at work for now, but what was being done to sustain us into the future?

I was doing a fellowship at that time, and this incident prompted me to consider transit as a possible way into a film. I had also heard about oysters being restored to the empty, polluted waters of NYC harbor and thought about what our city was willing to invest in its future. For me, the story about the oysters was about the optimism necessary to put effort into a long-term environmental project.

The documentary’s title is ‘Holding Back the Tide’. What’s it about and how’s it coming together?

‘Holding Back the Tide’ is a hybrid city symphony documentary about oysters in NYC. We follow the oysters through their lifecycle – from the hatchery, to the farm, to being eaten, and finally to being collected and recycled for new oyster larvae to settle on. The film blends traditional vérité documentary scenes where we experience real-world learning with expressive scripted scenes that give historical context and explore oysters’ cultural connotations—from traditional symbols of romance, sexuality, and high society, to the queer, environmental, and radical associations we hope to inspire. It’ll be the most fun climate catastrophe film you’ll see in 2023! 

I’m also thrilled to announce that ‘Holding Back the Tide’ was selected for a new avenue of support from the Sundance Institute. We are one of five Documentary Edit and Story Lab finalists who have demonstrated bold and creative vision. It will include consultations with experienced film professionals and a peer review session with other filmmakers.

Congrats on getting support from the Sundance Institute! Now I’m curious, tell me something fascinating about oysters!

There are so many fascinating things! 

1. Our major inspiration for the artistic treatment of the film is that oysters regularly change their sex as a part of their reproductive cycle. In the film, we celebrate their biological fluidity by casting them as queer icons!
2. They’re also each filtering up to 50 gallons of water per day. 
3. Since oysters grow in communities on top of one another, their reefs provide a habitat for fish and other aquatic life to thrive.
4. Though we now advocate for recycling oyster shells to maintain their sustainable lifecycle, these shells were already being reused en masse a while ago. They were ground up and integrated into mortar that was used to build some of the most iconic buildings in lower Manhattan, including Trinity Church. 

I have a newfound respect for oysters! During the production of the film, were there any particular people or projects that left an impression on you?

I swear we met half the city while shooting this project! The film is full of characters who rocked our boat. We met Wade Karlin, an aspiring actor whose family has been selling fish at the Union Square Market for over 20 years. Another character is Sue Wicks, a retired WNBA athlete who now tends to her violet oysters growing around Long Island. Moody “the Mothershucker” Harney, who made a big impression on us, is making a splash in the culinary world with his mission to feed ordinary New Yorkers oysters as the food of the future. 

We also worked with folks from local clubs and organizations that are doing incredible environmental work around the city. Members of the Gowanus Dredgers Club are a quirky crew who orient their activism around public water access, often advocating for the ability to canoe in the infamous superfund site, in addition to revitalizing it. Others focus more specifically on oysters themselves. SCAPE, for example, an architecture firm that designs underwater projects to shape the harbor is known for its use of “oyster-tecture”: oysters to build and grow their designs. There’s also Billion Oyster Project which plans to restore one billion oysters to the once-teeming NYC harbor by 2035 with the help of volunteers and student scientists. One billion oysters will revitalize the entire harbor’s biodiversity as well as filter its water every three days.

What is the significance of the story you tell through the film, and who do you hope it will benefit?

New York Harbor is at a historical turning point that could make or break the city’s livability, and it turns out that oysters are a crucial character in its story! As tides continue rising, our film celebrates the intricacies and interconnectedness of oysters as a realistic systemic intervention in the ticking environmental time bomb that is New York City. 

We know from speaking with environmentalists that shifting public perception is integral to securing funding and inspiring legislative action. Telling a new story about oysters might free up funding and generate new opportunities for large-scale restoration projects that could make a tremendous difference by cleaning up our waterways and protecting our cities. We imagine a world where everyone who eats oysters knows about their ecological role, including their shell recycling, leading to a closed-loop system where not a shell goes to waste!

With the renewed popularity of oysters as a food, the film also celebrates indigenous ways of life as well as the Black entrepreneurship that initiated the oyster boom in NYC. We also want queer audiences to see themselves onscreen in a new way. At a time when LGBTQIA+ rights are increasingly under attack and queer lives are in jeopardy, stories that feature trans heroism in the natural world are more necessary than ever.

What excites you about the future of documentary filmmaking and how would you like to see the industry evolve?

This is such an exciting time to be a documentary filmmaker! Right now, there’s major interest in the documentary “wow” factor – character-driven films, investigative documentaries, and even productions that mirror reality TV. There are more documentary films being financed, made, and watched than ever before. However, these resources are mostly concentrated within giant streaming services. Corporate interests push documentaries toward predictable storytelling models. 

“New ways of telling stories can reframe how we see ourselves and our world.”

Emily Packer
Experimental Filmmaker

I want to see more innovation, greater risk-taking, and the use of less traditional storytelling models. New ways of telling stories can reframe how we see ourselves and our world. I also want to see humanist films that don’t rely on archaic and exploitative practices, both onscreen and behind the camera. There is so much room for collaboration and distribution of resources (both within one project and across the industry) than history has led us to believe. We can evolve to a more holistic model and invite new visionaries to the forefront by taking turns in the directorial hot seat, like a flock of geese switching off who is leading.

Absolutely agree – there’s no time like the present to bring these stories forward. What does impact look like and how can we help?

Next time you eat oysters, make sure you recycle the shells! Ask your favorite oyster bar what they do with the discarded shells and help them identify a local organization they can connect with to repurpose that waste to good use. Finally, if you’re in New York State, ask your representatives to support Assembly Bill A258 which incentivizes this type of partnership with a “mollusk shell recycling” tax credit. You can also follow us on Instagram @holdingbackthetide to follow along with the film and see when it will be screening near you! Our fingers are crossed for a 2023 premiere.

🎥 🦪🗽 Follow along on Instagram @holdingbackthetide and find Emily Packer @marginalgapgirl