LandofOpportunity Launches Interactive Video on BP Spill Fallout

by Stephanie Brown

lop_survivingthespillLast week, in honor of Earth Day, LandofOpportunity together with Bridge The Gulf  launched their new interactive video “Surviving the Spill: BP Oil Disaster,” an exploration of the impact of the spill on Gulf Coast communities.

The video is only the latest in a series of interactive videos released by LandofOpportunity, an experimental web project that merges compelling multimedia storytelling with curated data, research, and calls to action. LandofOpportunity’s videos explore post-crisis community (re)building in America.

“Surviving the Spill” combines the personal stories of people whose lives were changed by the spill with other media and information pulled from a wide variety of sources. The interactive format allows viewers to conduct their own investigation by navigating through videos, articles, and interviews that provide deeper insight into the lasting impacts of the BP disaster.

“It felt like something had ripped out of me,” one resident recalls. “I knew that my whole livelihood was coming to an end.” Before the spill he was able to earn up to $500 making shrimp nets, but now he’s lucky if he makes $50.

“They wiped out all our options,” says another resident, whose career as a fisherman was severely impacted by the spill. “We don’t know how to survive on anything but this water. This is what we love. They’ve taken away our heart.”

Watch the whole video here.

The Center has been following the development of LandofOpportunity over the last few months. Read more about the platform, interactive design, and the user experience, and check out the rest of LandofOpportunity’s videos here.

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