FoodLove 10: Jessica Plumb
Episode 10: Jessica Plumb
Meet Jessica Plumb, the producer and co-director of ten-time award-winning film—Return of the River. This writer and master storyteller in film and video gives us a behind-the-scenes understanding of her artistic journey in the making of the film.
As an inter-disciplinary artist and graduate of Goddard College’s M.F.A program, Jessica committed over a decade to produce one of the most important films of this era. Jessica captures the interconnectedness between people and land, water and food, culture and identity, political process and choices, and restoration of environment and spirit.
Her portrait of the Elwha River inspired me to move my family near the river for a summer to listen, observe, and learn. I hoped for us to build our own relationship to this body of water and the sacredness of it as a source for life here on the Olympic Peninsula. It felt, in part, like a necessary pilgrimage and an experiment in living in gratitude for the beauty of this place that provided time for an inward journey to honor and remember the perseverance of the Lower Elwha tribe as stewards of this landscape.
When I saw how the river surged unfettered with its immense energy and beauty, I could only imagine what a shock it must have been to see the river caged by a dam. I imagined that the loss of salmon as a source of food and the related traditions must have disrupted culture in a deeply painful way, made worse by racism and arrests (despite treaty rights that guaranteed the Lower Elwha’s right to fish for salmon).
If you read the news, the size of salmon that are being commercially fished are shrinking. According to scientists, the smaller sizes are the harbinger of an environmental imbalance that affects a “keystone species.” Jessica explains to us that before the damming of the river, the salmon were of mythical proportions. They began shrinking after the Elwha River was first dammed with the rapid increase in commercial fishing. (Read here to learn more about the shrinking ages and sizes of the salmon.)
Jessica reveals the scientific secrets of “salmon forests” which everyone would do well to know. Her explanation of salmon forests offers an opportunity to marvel at the sheer magic and natural wonder in our world. The salmon are part and parcel of the terroir of this place.
In the film, Jessica deftly weaves the complex political, cultural, historical, civic, and change management process into a visual and auditory tapestry of transformation and restoration. Her film is an example of art that reflects FoodLove: The Space between Terroir and the Tao of Food. In a re-imagined home economics curriculum, all children would watch this movie.
