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The Last Stand: Heroes At Ballona Wetlands A documentary by Sheila Laffey
Photo courtesy of Johnathan Coffin https://www.flickr.com/photos/stonebird/
Images from The Last Stand: Heroes at Ballona Wetlands documentary film
Ed Asner narrates the film.
Executive Producer Sheila Laffey second from the right.
Protesters shine light on investors who want to bulldoze the fragile coastal freshwater lagoon.
Producer Sheila Laffey, second from right, filming from a canoe.
Leslie Purcell stands above destroyed wetlands and a Native American burial ground. Bodies were dug up and placed in 5 gallons plastic buckets. The wetland in the background was crushed by developers. A giant mound of dirt was placed on top in a process called surcharging. The freshwater will not return. This is how wetlands are replaced by buildings and parking lots.
Members of the public protest destruction of a coastal lagoon environment, home to a diversity of flora and fauna. Half of the wetlands were destroyed and half preserved. However, developers are still trying to destroy the remaining resource more than twenty years later. To date, lawsuits have saved what remains.
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MEDIA COVERAGE
Major Press on Feature Films
"The Mudslinging in the Wetlands," Lorenza Munoz and ‘Wetlands" More Promotion Than Documentary," James Bates, Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1999
"Business Writers Was Wrong Choice for ‘Wetlands’ Review", four letters to the editor, all supporting the film "Los Angeles Times," May 1, 1999
Counterpunch: Production Team Takes Issue with the Ballona Wetlands Stories," "Los Angeles Times," by filmmakers Sheila A. Laffey, Todd Brunelle, Lorraine Salk, Jay Elliot, May 10, 1999
"DreamJerks: Steven Spielberg and His Billionaire Partners Would Bulldoze E.T. to Get the Playa Vista Megadevelopment Built on L.A.’s last Surviving Wetlands. But Outraged Citizens May Topple These Giants," cover story, "New Times Los Angeles, June 3-9, 1999
Newspaper Articles : The Last Stand: Heroes At Ballona Wetlands 2004 short
Argonaut Newspaper, The Last Stand finalist in Ethos Film Festival Laemmle Monica
The Last Stand: Heroes at Ballona Wetlands - Santa Monica Daily Press (smdp.com)
Santa Monica Daily Press, Jack Neworth Nov. 10, 2023
https://smdp.com/2023/11/10/the-last-stand-heroes-at-ballona-wetlands/
Other Articles and Reviews: The Last Stand Struggle The Ballona Wetlands 1999
Included are 2000 updated hour long feature and The Last Stand: Heroes at Ballona Wetlands 2004 short.
‘The Last Stand,’ Teaches Importance of Ballona Wetlands," "Daily Bruin," newspaper of UCLA, April 16, 1999
by David King
"Wetlands Screening to Show Saturday," "Daily Trojan," Newspaper of USC, March 5, 1999, by Claire Luna
"Documenting the Battle Over the Ballona Wetlands," Culver City Chronicle, June 2, 1999, by Lawrence C. Ross, Jr.
"Documentary Film on Wetlands to be Shown Here Next Week," "Santa Monica Mirror," December 1-7, 1999
"A terrific, clear statement of the Ballona issue." Haskell Wexler, Oscar winning cinematographer ("Bound for Glory," "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?")
"From Walden to Wao Kele O Puna to Wetlands," chapter by Producer Sheila A. Laffey, Ph.D. in The Search forReality: The Art of Documentary Filmmaking, edited by Michael Tobias, Michael Wiese Productions, 1998 (available in bookstores or contact www.mwp.com or 818-379-8799)
Other coverage in:
Westside Life Magazine
Santa Monica Mirror
Santa Monica Mirror
The Video Project
South Coast Today
Photo at left by Jonathan Coffin