The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and the Friends of the Visual Arts will present a free, one-night screening of “Bombs to Birds” at 7 p.m. Friday, June 2, in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.
A documentary by award-winning photojournalist Richard Michael Pruitt, “Bombs to Birds” explores the rich history of the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge, 7,000 acres set aside to protect one of the highest quality old-growth bottom land hardwood forests in the southeastern United States and the wildlife that inhabit it, according to information at imdb.com.
Home to a munitions plant from 1941 to 1994, the EPA designated the land as a Superfund site in 1990. The Army’s Base Realignment and Closure Division was tasked with cleaning the Refuge’s acreage in 2000. Today, little progress has been made to clean the original fouled acres, and they remain closed to the public. Community inquiries about the status of the cleanup and Freedom of Information requests have gone unanswered, the website explains.
Narrated by Texas author and performer Kinky Friedman, the 57-minute documentary was filmed in 2012.
This screening is part of the School of Art’s monthly Friday Film Series and is sponsored in part by William Arscott, Nacogdoches Film Festival, Karon Gillespie, Mike Mollot, David Kulhavy, Brad Maule, John and Kristen Heath, Galleria Z, Jill Carrington, Jean Stephens, Jim and Mary Neal, Richard Orton and Main Street Nacogdoches.
The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.
