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Behind Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill, there is a much larger, more devastating problem: the loss of thousands of miles of marshlands protecting the Gulf Coast.

Southeastern Louisiana is the fastest disappearing landmass on earth. As its fertile lands are destroyed,
America is losing one of the world's most extraordinary regions. No community has been hit harder than Isle de Jean Charles, a tiny island deep in the bayous. Home to a once thriving community of Native Americans, its population is now dwindling. As the surrounding marshland erodes, the island stands defenseless against the ocean tides that will eventually destroy it. This small community has been called America's first "climate refugees."

A host of environmental problems—coastal erosion, man-made levees, lack of soil renewal, oil company and government canals, sea level rise, and most recently the BP disaster—are overwhelming the shrinking island. The Army Corps of Engineers has excluded Isle de Jean Charles from its levee protection zone. This leaves the land utterly exposed to annual hurricanes and the encroaching Gulf of Mexico. Disaster looms very near.

We began documenting life on Isle de Jean Charles in January of 2010. Four months into filming, the greatest environmental disaster in American history struck the Gulf Coast. With millions of gallons of oil from the BP spill devastating the waters surrounding the island, the livelihoods of many islanders—fishermen, shrimpers, and oystermen—have been halted. Those who vowed to stay on the island until it completely washed away now face an even more uncertain future.

The Chief of the tribe, Albert Naquin has dedicated his life to helping his community relocate. Tired of enduring the constant flooding and rebuilding, he left the island years ago for higher ground a few miles north. He has been urging the rest of his tribe to follow and has been in negotiations with Federal and Parish officials to purchase land where the islanders can relocate as a community but so far has been unable to secure a deal for his community.

But there is a paradoxical wrinkle to the story: the tribe is now holding out for a large settlement from BP. They have hired a New York financial group to help them negotiate with Obama appointee Kenneth Feinberg. The Chief of the tribe wants to use the potential settlement money to relocate his community and maintain cultural cohesion as a tribe. Ironically, BP – the very company that has polluted their waters – may come to their rescue, by providing the necessary funds for resettlement.