We aim to support, revitalize, protect, and promote both cultural and environmental sustainability within coastal communities affected by climate change.
-The Beyond the Shell Team
About
The Beyond The Shell Project is focused on scientific and cultural outreach through documentary and social media platform (Instagram: @Beyond_The_Shell) formats. Specifically, the project is focused on the balance found between care for culture and environment and promotes sustainable place based activities (e.g., locally acquired art mediums and food items). The project started with a film, Beyond the Shell, produced in the Advanced Laboratory of Visual Anthropology at California State University, Chico (see film abstract and trailer bellow). The project continues through The Abalone Collective [**page under construction**] and in the accessible dissemination of scientific information through more accessible formats than traditionally seen in journal publication formats.
FILM ABSTRACT: Beyond the Shell, a documentary concerning California’s red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) population, highlights the coastal cultures and economies which rely on this scarce marine resource. Since 2018 recreational abalone diving in California has been closed, affecting communities throughout the state with varied motivating interests in red abalone’s survival. The 2018 closure is predominantly the result of anthropogenically induced climate change, specifically the lack of balance found between kelp and sea urchin populations following extreme sea-surface warming events. To bring awareness to modern fishery issues and their effects on culturally relevant species this film looks “beyond the shell” at the stories of eight individuals of varied backgrounds and specialties throughout coastal California who have been affected by the 2018 fishery closure. The documentary argues for the responsible and sustainable management of California’s red abalone populations in collaboration with Indigenous groups who have been managing local intertidal systems along the eastern Pacific coastlines for generations. The film additionally highlights how archaeology, in collaboration with cultural stakeholders, has the potential to reveal past climate systems and traditional maintenance of the eastern Pacific’s intertidal enabling more informed environmental policy and management plans.
Collaborators on this film include: Alexandria Firenzi (producer/director), Stacey Jones (co-driector/editor), Dan Bruns (postproduction supervisor/ director of photography), Brian Brazeal (executive producer), Kanyon Sayers-Roods (Hahashkani "Coyote Woman”; interviewee), Hillary Renick (interviewee), Leah Mata Fragua (interviewee), Linda Yamane (interviewee), Tim Thomas (interviewee), Brian Tissot (interviewee), Peter Raimondi (interviewee), Tristin Anoush McHugh (interviewee), Jeremy McFarland (interviewee), Art Seavey (interviewee), Tsim Schneider (interviewee), and Aryana Henthorne (interviewee).
Alexandria Firenzi (Director and Producer) in an interview with Katey Roshetko from the Reno, NV, USA Kolo 8 News “Morning Break” discussing the film and the University of Nevada, Reno March 5th, 2024 showing.
FILM COLLABORATORS
Location & Contacts
Address:
Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology
400 W. First St.
Chico, CA 95929–0400
Contact Information:
Email: theabalonecollective@gmail.com
Producer and director, Alexandria Firenzi, presenting a "Beyond the Shell" poster at the 2023 Society for California Archaeology conference. Alexandria seen discussing urchin barrens with urchin specialist, Dr. Amira Ainis a professor of anthropology at Cal State LA.
"Abalone Mountain" at Tule Lake internment camp where Japanese Americans were wrongly imprisoned during WWII. This name is not geographical, but coined by the survivors and residents of the internment camp. Abalone plays a significant role in Japanese culture (see Tim Thomas' blog post for more information on Japanese Divers in Monterey Bay, CA).
Image shot near Mendocino County with collaborator Aryana Reinick (Center), producer and director Alexandria Firenzi (left) and co-director and editor Stacey Jones (right).
Instagram's #RoamingOhlone at our Santa Cruz film site with Dr. Tsim Schnieder and CEO and Indian Canyon representative Kanyon Sayers-Roods (Hahashkani "Coyote Woman").
Stacey Jones, our co-director and editor, with Alexandria Firenzi, our producer and director, prepping for a day of collecting B-roll underwater for the film at Casper Cove camp ground.
Producer and director, Alexandria Firenzi, roasting dinner at Caspar Beach in Fort Bragg, CA with co-director and editor, Stacey Jones, while the director of photography and post-production supervisor, Dan Bruns, gets some amazing B-roll of the fire.
Co-director and editor, Stacey Jones shooting some great B-roll with Dan Bruns, the director of photography and post production supervisor in Mendocino County, CA.
Producer and director Alexandria Firenzi in her final years of diving prior to the red abalone season closure.
Co-director and editor Stacey Jones in her diving prior to the red abalone season closure.
We are humbly appreciative to have filmed on traditional Indigenous homelands. We hope to honor the original peoples of California and their connections to the land through the preservation of their story. Let this acknowledgment serve as a reminder of continuing efforts for recognition amongst the communities whose historic homelands we benefit from today.
The Beyond the Shell Team