Seven years in the making, a documentary on the rich history and uncertain future of Plum Island is nearing completion — but the local filmmakers behind the project say they need one last round of support to finish the job.

Directors Thomas Halaczinsky and Petrina Engelke, who live in Greenport, are seeking $60,000 to complete the film’s post-production phase, including technical services like sound mixing and color correction. To raise the remaining funds, they plan to host a series of “work-in-progress” screenings later this summer, showing clips of the film and talking about its production.

“Local filmmakers and friends were happily willing to give us some of their time and their labor for this film, and now we have to bring it over the finish line,” said Halaczinsky.

Supported in part by a recent grant from the North Fork Side by Side Foundation, the film has drawn in a community of collaborators who believe in its vision. Halaczinsky said the upcoming screenings could range from intimate gatherings in private homes to larger events.

“These ‘work in progress’ screenings could be on any scope,” he said. “It could be five people in a private home that are willing to support the film and invite their friends and people chip in and make it happen. That’s what we’re hoping for.”

In 2018, Halaczinsky published Archipelago New York, a photographic and literary exploration of more than 70 islands stretching from New York Harbor to Fishers Island. That work laid the foundation for a deeper exploration of Plum Island, which the couple began documenting after the book was released.

Halaczinsky and Engelke first arrived in Greenport in 2016, and moved her permanently during the pandemic, he said.

“When I started this film, it was my way of connecting with a community we were not a part of — as a contribution to the community, to telling the story of a community,” Halaczinsky said.

That story spans centuries. Long before Plum Island became the subject of Cold War secrecy and public speculation, it was a sacred place known as Manittuwond to the Montauketts, a coastal Algonquian-speaking people. The island’s sheltered coves and abundant eelgrass beds supported generations of seasonal migration, fishing and spiritual life.

European colonization in the 17th century gradually cut off Montaukett access, and by the late 1800s, the U.S. military had claimed the island to construct Fort Terry — a coastal defense post built at the height of the Spanish-American War.

The island’s most controversial chapter began in 1954, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture opened the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. Charged with studying livestock diseases that threatened the nation’s food supply, the lab became a lightning rod for conspiracy theories — fueled by its isolated location and restricted access.

“The lab is like an exercise in conspiracy theory, if you wish,” said Halaczinsky. “Because it has all the elements.”

Today, the lab is in the process of being decommissioned and its operations transferred to a new facility in Kansas. As federal control loosens, the question of what comes next for the 840-acre island has grown urgent — both politically and ecologically.

Environmental groups, tribal advocates and historians are calling for the island to be preserved and protected. Efforts to designate Plum Island as a national monument have seen a series of legislative initiatives and setbacks. In the spring of 2023, U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota introduced the Plum Island National Monument Act, which aimed to preserve the island for ecological conservation and historic preservation, but the bill never received a floor vote.

Earlier this year, New York senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Connecticut senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy introduced complementary bills in the Senate: the Plum Island Preservation Act, to permanently protect the island from development, and the Plum Island Preservation Study Act, which would direct the Dept. of the Interior to evaluate the island’s national significance and suitability for federal protection. Both bills remain in the early stages of the legislative process.

A coalition of more than 120 organizations have been trying to save Plum Island from sale or development for years. The Montaukett people continue to seek access to their ancestral lands and greater recognition of the island’s Indigenous significance.

Beyond its cultural history, Plum Island plays a critical role in coastal resilience. Perched at the mouth of Long Island Sound, the island acts as a natural barrier against storm surges, shielding parts of coastal New York and Connecticut from extreme weather. Its beaches, salt marshes and eelgrass beds absorb wave energy, reduce erosion and trap atmospheric carbon.

“We live in an island environment, which is prone to be swallowed up by rising sea levels in 50 or 100 years,” Halaczinsky said. “So protecting our shores and re-enforcing our shores by natural means is a huge topic that should be on everybody’s mind — we’re at the water’s edge.”

The filmmakers hope their documentary will not only chronicle Plum Island’s layered past but inspire public engagement with its precarious future. They see their work as both artistic and civic — a storytelling effort rooted in place.

Click here for more information on hosting a screening or donating to the project.