Neah Bay: Restoring Ancestral Waters
This documentary short tells the story of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation's removal of a massive highway bridge section from the waters of Neah Bay, Washington. The bridge fragment had been dumped there three decades earlier, in the ancestral fishing grounds of the Makah tribe. The Foundation’s goal was to highlight their monumental removal effort that cleared more than 3,700 tons of large marine debris, hydrocarbons, and oily sludge from and adjacent to Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
Rather than build the story around official soundbites and leadership messaging, I centered it on the visual spectacle of the removal effort itself and, more importantly, on a Makah father and son whose ancestors have fished these same waters for generations, and who continue that tradition as commercial fishermen in Neah Bay. The story of those two fishermen highlighted the importance of the work the Foundation does, and why they do it, in a uniquely personal way. That simple story choice shaped the whole video into a compelling and visually stunning story about restoring a place, told through the people whose relationship to this sacred place never broke.
“Neah Bay” has been selected for 29 film festivals so far, including three wins, one finalist placement, five nominations, and three honorable mentions. The short is still screening in front of live audiences at film events across the country throughout 2026.