Join UVA Environmental Institute Karen McGlathery as she introduces the screening of the film Been Here, Stay Here at this year's Virginia Film Festival.
A quiet, immersive portrait of Tangier Island, a centuries-old Christian fishing community in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay. Long used as a symbol in the national climate conversation, Tangier is often portrayed through a lens of skepticism or scorn—framed as “America’s first climate casualty” and written off as a place in denial. This film offers another way in.
With no experts, voiceovers, or statistics, Been Here Stay Here invites viewers into the lived experience of the island’s residents—through faith, memory, and the rhythms of daily life. By stepping away from spectacle and alarm, the film allows the community to speak on its own terms, revealing not denial but devotion: to place, to faith, and to a way of life that refuses easy categorization.
Following will be a discussion with director David Usui and Sarah Cayton (Chesapeake Bay Foundation).
Buy tickets online at virginiafilmfestival.org.
