Codex Film Project: Flooded Books - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Codex Film Project: Flooded Books

You hear of films that follow books.

But not quite like this.

Minot State University Instructor Micah Bloom rides his bike to work everyday, regardless of the weather.

After the 2011 flood, he noticed a piece of 'debris' that he felt was being forgotten.

Bloom took that emotional response and created the Codex Film Project.

Tonight we have a piece of that film as Bloom tells us about the experience.

(Micah Bloom, Codex Film Project) "Since I was really young, in my house we had to respect books and keep them in their place and don't sit on them, don't stand on them. So they seemed like bodies, exposed after a disaster that needed to be cared for."

(Micah Bloom, Codex Film Project) "Books that are in trees and they're also made out of trees, and they're like leaves flapping in the trees. Some have been underwater filming. And the relationship between the bugs and the animals making nests in them, bugs boaring holes in them. The repurposing, how the earth is taking these things that we've lost and repurposing them, still relevant but now for a different audience, a different use."

(Micah Bloom, Codex Film Project) "To bring something out of these books that was meaningful for both Minot and for myself was to start to collect them and start to photograph them and eventually film them in their state over the year and going back and finding them in their state. See how the environment effects them and also collecting and preparing burial for them."

(Micah Bloom, Codex Film Project) "It's part of the grieving process that we go through when we loose something. It's a way to lay to rest, and letting go some of those things that we've lost."

The public film debut is scheduled for March 5th at 7:30 in Alshire Theater at Minot State University --- and a number of items used in the film will be on display in the MSU Northwest Art Center through the month of March.

Micah Bloom and the volunteers who helped him complete the Codex Film Project hope to submit the 30 minute film into competitions.

For more information or to pledge support you can visit www.kickstarter.com and search CODEX.