"We're in beautiful downtown Mossville," says Stacey Ryan, the central figure in the documentary Mossville: When Great Trees Fall, as he waves his arm toward the supremely ugly petrochemical plants and construction projects surrounding him. "Population of one," he adds bitterly, essentially summing up the central theme of Alex Glustrom's powerful film concerning the environmental ravaging of a once-thriving community.
Ryan is the last man standing in a rural town that at one point had a population of 8,000. Founded in the late 19th century by freed slaves, Mossville, Louisiana, is where his family has lived for generations.