An environmental music video, Gulf of Mexico, 2010
Black Black Blood
Song by Katherine Archer. Video edited by Patty Mooney.
Watch the videoFree to watch
A haunting protest song made in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, when crude oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico and spread toward its wetlands, wildlife and coastal towns.
Florida singer-songwriter Katherine Archer turned her anger and grief into the song. Patty Mooney brought it to the screen as a visual meditation on one of the worst environmental disasters in American history, built around the song’s central image: oil as dark blood spreading through the living body of the ocean.
- Song
- Katherine Archer
- Performed by
- Katherine Archer Band with Chelsea Saddler
- Video edited by
- Patty Mooney, Crystal Pyramid Productions
- Subject
- The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill
Watch Black Black Blood
Free to watch.
How the song came to be
April 2010: the rig explodes
The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing an enormous flow of crude oil that threatened marine life, coastal wetlands, wildlife and communities throughout the region.
Anger becomes a song
Katherine Archer, a Florida singer-songwriter with a deeply personal connection to the state, transformed her anger, grief and concern for the natural world into Black Black Blood. She recorded it with the Katherine Archer Band and Chelsea Saddler.
Oil as dark blood
Patty Mooney of Crystal Pyramid Productions collaborated with Archer to bring the song to the screen. Her edit underscores the song’s central metaphor, oil spreading like dark blood through the living body of the ocean.
Sung on the National Mall
Archer later performed Black Black Blood at a rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Devastation in the Gulf ultimately reaches everyone the world’s oceans connect.
The belief Katherine Archer wrote the song from
Black Black Blood stands as both an environmental protest and a historical document: a record of a moment when musicians and filmmakers used their art to bear witness to an ecological catastrophe as it unfolded.
A collaboration between Katherine Archer and Patty Mooney.
Credits
- Song written by
- Katherine Archer
- Performed by
- Katherine Archer Band with Chelsea Saddler
- Video edited by
- Patty Mooney / Crystal Pyramid Productions
Find more
- pattymooney.comPatty Mooney’s website
- newunique.comThe New & Unique Videos® catalog
- nectarball.substack.comNectarball on Substack