Steve Rowell
Planetary Bayou
2023-25 TBD
Planetary Bayou is a film about a slow-moving, shallow, muddy creek in Texas that has changed the course of life on Earth, as it has mutated during its flow through the most concentrated petrochemical complex in the world.
Seen as a built environment, Houston is a chaotic and confounding metroplex. What makes it so compelling as a subject of inquiry is its singular status as the petrochemical capital of the world and the planetary impact of its fossil fuel manufacturing. By extension, this city affects all life on Earth today and every imaginable tomorrow.
Planetary Bayou explores these histories and futures through an expansive investigation of the cultures and environments across deep time, centered on a key feature of the landscape: the Buffalo Bayou. From its source as a ditch in a field near Katy, Texas, to its transformation into an industrial ship canal lined with hundreds of petrochemical plants, and into the Gulf of Mexico—where pipelines snake across abyssal plains, leaking crude oil—this unassuming bayou is revealed as one of the most consequential waterways in the world.
Visually, the film follows the Buffalo Bayou from its humble beginnings west of Houston, tracing its widening, channelization, rewilding, and ultimate transformation into a massive industrial corridor. The bayou flows through two bays before reaching the Gulf of Mexico, where industrial and ecological forces collide. Along this journey, the narration—delivered through voiceover, intertitles, and captions—blends historical, personal, speculative, and literary accounts, creating a layered portrait of this extraordinary waterway.
Through evocative imagery, sound design, and storytelling, Planetary Bayou informs and compels. It moves across vast timescales and places, from the immediate and visible to the distant and imagined, asking viewers to connect with the unseen forces shaping our world. This is a film about more than a single city or waterway; it’s about the planetary stakes of human and environmental entanglement.
More information soon.
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