Documentary film, MRGO-ING, GOING, GONE, a decade in the making, reveals the backstory of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet—the infamous and now closed 76-mile shipping channel implicated in the catastrophic flooding following Hurricane Katrina. Produced by the Loyola University New Orleans Center for Environmental Communication and e/Prime Media, it’s a story of wetlands destruction, coastal erosion, flooding, political wrangling and mismanaged public resources. A free, public screening of the documentary was held on Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. at the Chalmette Cinema located at 8700 W. Judge Perez Dr. The documentary premiered on New Orleans public television station WYES on October 20 and has since aired several times.

Filmmakers Bob Thomas, Ph.D., director of the Loyola Center for Environmental Communication, and Kevin McCaffrey, executive producer of e/Prime Media, interviewed more than 30 experts, including many who witnessed some of the most distressing environmental consequences of the shipping channel in St. Bernard Parish. The film also features The Lens reporter and Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental journalist Bob Marshall. Though the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet was closed in 2009, the nation could potentially spend billions of dollars repairing the damage caused by it, according to experts interviewed in the documentary.