We Can Get There from Here
After years studying marine microplastics around the globe, Abby Barrows was ready to come home. In 2015, looking for a side-project that would keep her on the water, she bought the lease for an oyster farm in Deer Isle, Maine. When she saw the mountain of plastic gear that came with it, the side-project became something else. Today, Deer Isle Oyster Co. is a flourishing family business, a proving ground for plastic-free mari-culture gear, a new pier for a working waterfront reliant on one fishery, and a purveyor of some of the best oysters in the world. This is the story of one season on the farm, which also happens to be the story of an old island’s precarious present and potential future.
Filmmaker: Alex Lowther
Running Time: 29 mins
Language: English with open captions
Type: Official Selection – Short
Alex Lowther is the creative director of film and video at Patagonia, which means he mostly rides a desk. But sometimes he gets to hands-on make things himself, and this was one of those times. We Can Get There From Here (the title is a take on the famous Down East transit punchline, “You can’t get there from here”) was mostly filmed in the cove behind his father in law’s house in Maine. He often commuted to the oyster farm via canoe and only got stranded on the farm by low tide a couple of times.
