Lessi Phillips was only 16 years old in 2008 when a Shell Oil pipeline burst pouring an un-assessed amount of oil into the mangrove swamps near her village for 77 days. The pipeline ran under the creeks of the Niger Delta in her small town of Bodo City Nigeria and the leaking oil devastated the diverse ecosystem, destroying the vibrant local fisheries and farms. It pushed families like hers to find new places to live and sent a once thriving community into a downwards economic and social spiral. Nearly ten years later Lessi has graduated from university and returns to Bodo City where she shows us both the environmental devastation that has impacted her community and also the work that she does with young women to revive hope as the community grapples with its long road to recovery.

In this immersive VR film by Contrast VR and AJE Online, follow Lessi through her village, to the farm and into the creeks and classrooms as she shows us both the environmental devastation and the youth who provide her community with a sense of hope. Experience 180 degrees of intense landscape shots from the present showing the effects of the oil spill fused with 180 degrees of animation to show how the community appeared before the spill for a full 360 degrees of immersion. Oil In Our Creeks surrounds viewers with that past, present and future of a community grappling with the very local impact of the global oil trade.