Black Rock, Pink Sky tells the story of human and natural forces interacting on the Niagara River and Scajaquada Creek. Treating the land and water as characters, the documentary offers a nuanced examination of the intricate interactions that emerge within these waterscapes and along their shores.

It focuses on the fishing communities that sustain themselves through Western New York’s waterways and their favored spots along the shore, including the area just north of the Peace Bridge at Ferry Street – where an Underground Railroad crossing once was, and where runaway slaves would swim across strong currents to Canada.

The long line of shore anglers extends northward to Unity Island, a landfill where families collect to fish for their dinners.  The black rocks are no longer visible there.  The large outcropping of chert –  sacred to the Nations that once lived along the river, and from which the once thriving city and canal derived their names –  was blasted to bits with dynamite in the 1800s in an effort to more easily enable navigation on the river.