Louisiana parish president sparks free speech struggle after shutting down ‘Most cancers Alley’ movie screening
This story was initially printed by Verite Information.
A documentary centered on a small Mississippi River parish had been racking up awards, incomes prizes at movie festivals in San Francisco, London and Milan.
However when residents of St. John the Baptist Parish tried to display “The Massive Sea” at a publicly owned theater throughout Black Historical past Month, Parish President Jaclyn Hotard intervened, shutting down the occasion with out clarification.
Organizers and authorized specialists say the cancellation in late February was discriminatory and appeared meant to silence viewpoints important of St. John’s massive petrochemical trade.
Produced by British filmmakers, the documentary explores the hyperlink between the worldwide browsing trade and air air pollution in Reserve, a largely poor, Black neighborhood in St. John. Till its closure final 12 months, the Denka chemical plant between Reserve and LaPlace was the nation’s solely producer of chloroprene, a key ingredient used to make neoprene for wetsuits worn by surfers worldwide.
“The Massive Sea” takes purpose at Denka, an organization that federal regulators stated posed a considerable most cancers danger to St. John residents, and the broader industrial hall between New Orleans and Baton Rouge — an space generally known as Most cancers Alley.
“That is necessary stuff for us to get to the general public,” stated Robert Taylor, president of Involved Residents of St. John, a neighborhood group that organized the screening on the St. John Theatre, a parish-owned theater in Reserve. “However the energy of the petrochemical trade runs deep in Louisiana.”
Hotard has beforehand tussled with neighborhood teams over industrial tasks. In 2024, court docket filings revealed she had used violent language towards activists opposing a now-defunct grain terminal venture. Proof proven in federal court docket additionally confirmed her household stood to earn money from a land deal associated to the venture, which might have been constructed atop the graves of enslaved folks. Final 12 months, a jury cleared Hotard of allegations that she had restricted the speech of environmental justice activists throughout parish conferences.
Tulane College regulation professor Bruce Hamilton, who directs the varsity’s First Modification Clinic, stated Hotard’s cancellation of the documentary screening is “very clearly a First Modification violation.”
“The St. John Theatre is a public discussion board,” he added. “As a result of the parish authorities permits different makes use of, they will’t discriminate towards this documentary particularly.”
The 95-year-old former film home was bought and renovated by St. John Parish in 1980. Run by a nonprofit group that leases it from the parish, the theater is often rented out for neighborhood occasions.
Members of Involved Residents say they booked the theatre in December and acquired assurances from the theater’s supervisor, Amy Wombles, that the screening was accredited by the venue’s board. Involved Residents secured insurance coverage and had been finalizing food-service plans for the screening when Wombles abruptly introduced the present was canceled.
“We remorse that we should inform you that Parish President Jaclyn Hotard has vetoed the screening of The Massive Sea documentary at St. John Theatre,” Wombles wrote in an e-mail on Jan. 23. “The Parish President and the Sheriff have the authority to shut any occasion at St. John Theatre for quite a lot of causes.”
Sixteen weeks later, no purpose has been given, Taylor stated.
“We’d executed plenty of work placing it collectively,” he stated. “However after they’d given us entry, they canceled. And we nonetheless don’t know why.”
Hotard and Wombles didn’t reply to requests for remark.
First elected parish president in 2019, Hotard was a powerful supporter of Denka, praising its contributions to the native financial system, which she estimated final 12 months contributed about 250 jobs and $2 million in annual gross sales tax income.
She blamed the plant’s closure on federal regulators and authorized actions backed by environmental activists.
“I imagine among the pressures positioned on this facility had been significantly aggressive, and at occasions lacked the steadiness wanted to account for financial and workforce actuality,” she informed WVUE final 12 months.
‘We’re actually fascinated about litigation’
In 2023, President Joe Biden’s administration sued Denka, alleging that the plant posed “an imminent and substantial endangerment to public well being and welfare.” The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Safety Company, stated the corporate hadn’t moved quick sufficient to scale back emissions that posed most cancers dangers and imperiled kids. An elementary faculty, which has additionally closed, was a half-mile from the plant.
President Donald Trump’s administration dropped the lawsuit early final 12 months, however the plant was already shutting down. In Could 2025, Denka suspended manufacturing, citing toughening rules and a “slowdown” in world demand for neoprene.
“The Massive Sea” premiered final 12 months amid the tumult. It shortly racked up greater than a dozen awards at a number of movie festivals and attracted protection in Vogue, Surfer Journaland The Guardian.
The 75-minute documentary was filmed in California, Spain, Australia and different areas the place browsing is widespread, however its core narrative is rooted in St. John, a parish of about 40,000 those who straddles the Mississippi about 20 miles west of New Orleans. St. John was as soon as dominated by plantations however its farm fields have largely given option to industrial services. After Denka’s closure, the parish nonetheless has 10 services that the EPA says launch massive quantities of poisonous chemical substances.
“They’d proven the documentary all around the world, however it wanted to be proven right here as a result of it’s about us,” Taylor stated. “And we wished to indicate it in the one theater within the dog-gone parish.”
The theater advertises itself as a venue for varsity performs, dance recitals and sweetness pageants. Its schedule of occasions is pretty mild. In Could, as an illustration, the one performances the theater’s web site is selling are a Lynyrd Skynyrd cowl band and a play primarily based on the Disney film “Aladdin.”
“The theater doesn’t have that a lot occurring, to allow them to’t say they had been too busy,” Taylor stated.
Involved Residents has enlisted authorized assist from Hamilton on the First Modification Clinic. The clinic has despatched letters to Hotard and different parish officers in search of an evidence and reconsideration of the cancellation. A number of public information requests in search of emails and different communications in regards to the screening’s denial have yielded no paperwork, Hamilton stated.
Whereas Hotard has to this point prevented critical penalties from her disputes with neighborhood teams, Hamilton stated the parish is probably going bearing a monetary burden within the type of authorized charges.
He warned that extra authorized bother could also be coming.
“We’re actually fascinated about litigation,” Hamilton stated. “However that looks as if an costly and tough answer to an issue that might merely be solved by permitting the movie to indicate.”
Tristan Baurick is a senior reporter specializing in local weather change and the atmosphere.
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