JOHNSON CITY — A pair of East Tennessee State University graduate film students, Patrick
Cooley and Jake Higgs, have created and produced a new documentary exploring Breathitt
County, Kentucky, after significant flooding occurred in summer 2022.
The film’s accolades are impressive.
“When the Water Goes Down” has been accepted to Tennessee Film Nights; the Southern
Studies Conference at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama; and the Story? - International
Student Documentary Festival in Cork City, Ireland. The documentary was written about
and published in Appalachian Places.
“With the news vans packed up and onto the next natural disaster, what are the people
of Breathitt County left with when the water goes down?” reads the documentary’s logline.
The documentary explores climate change from scientific and biblical perspectives
and the sense of being forgotten through emotional testimonies from survivors, as
well as government action and inaction. Cooley and Higgs spoke with residents, county
officials, students and state representatives.
“‘When the Water Goes Down’ was borne of a simple request from journalist Skylar Baker-Jordan:
Help Eastern Kentucky not to be forgotten,” said Cooley. “This piece shares aesthetic
and thematic sensibilities with such documentary features as ‘Hale County This Morning,
This Evening,’ ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and ‘The Laramie Project.’”
Cooley and Higgs are joined by Baker-Jordan and Carleigh Minor in producing the documentary.
All four crew members are well-versed in Appalachian culture, pursuing degrees in
the Appalachian region. Cooley and Higgs are both students in the ETSU Media and Communication Department Graduate Certificate in Film Production Program. Both will graduate this spring. Cooley will graduate with a master’s degree in Appalachian
studies with a concentration in culture and heritage and Higgs with a master’s degree
in brand and media strategy.
“Initially, it was a great opportunity to do some on-location work that functioned
as both experiential learning for my Appalachian studies degree and a final project
for my ‘Documentary Research and Production’ class,” said Cooley. “However, once we
got there and started interacting directly with the people, it took on a weight and
urgency that I never could have anticipated.”
Cooley added that it is important to highlight these forgotten figures because “no
one knows this reality better than the people on the front lines … such as those in
Breathitt County.” Central Appalachia, he said, is unique in the ongoing climate crisis,
making it a prime relocation destination, yet also predicted to see an increase and
worsening of flooding events like the one that hit eastern Kentucky.