Storytellers Take On Ocean Plastics

We’re excited to announce our next collaboration with Max Romey, one of Alaska’s most promising storytellers (and according to us, maybe the world). Max has long held an interest in ocean plastics, ever since accompanying me to Kayak island in 2015 for one of the largest marine debris clean-ups Alaska had ever seen. We had discussed a film back then, too, but none of us were prepared for the exhaustion, both physical and emotional, of the project. Everyone left Kayak island forever changed. The story they envisioned wasn’t the right one. It simply didn’t match the enormity of the issue. Plus, well….youth. 

We got as far with the 2015 footage as this trailer, which in retrospect has gotten us somewhere after all.

Since then Max has risen from undergraduate film student to globetrotting filmmaker (no really, he runs…everywhere) with an impressive portfolio of projects under his belt. Better still, he discovered in the interim that he has a knack for painting.

Max has recruited onto his team Lila Hobbs of Our Wild Voices, a unique and gifted Alaskan storyteller in her own right. In here words, “Wild Voices utilizes storytelling as a medium to build community, inspire activism, and enhance stewardship of a wilder world.”

In the coming months Max and Lila will be working with OPR to develop and organize the narrative of the short film, and will accompany the spring 2020 expeditions. It’s a thrill to be going live with these guys, and see the team take shape.