film review

We went to see Living Downstream at the local theatre, a newly released documentary about chemicals in the environment. We were lucky to have the filmmaker Chanda Chevannes and the main scientist in the film, Sandra Steingraber, available for questions after the film.

The basic point of the film is that at least some of the chemicals in our food, soil, water, and air - for whose presence humans are responsible - can cause cancer. I think this film has the potential to reach a much wider audience because of the cancer element which so many people can relate to.

The film was very good and I do think it's one everyone should see. Even more than the Future of Food or Food Inc, it shows the importance of large-scale changes. The film explains how chemicals get into our food, soil, water, and air supply - so even if you are eating organic, you are still swimming in harmful, cancer-causing chemicals with every breath you take. That was why it was surprising to me when after the film, the first question on the 'what should we do?' theme was unanimously answered "eat organic." After the leaving the theatre I wondered whether they were trying to avoid being political in an effort to avoid polarizing or alienating viewers.

The film receives high marks from me in terms of its educational quality, though even if I were using this in a college classroom I'm sure the students would need help making connections in certain places. For the most part, Dr. Steingraber does a great job of conveying scientific facts and reasoning to a lay audience.

One of the most interesting points she made was that when she was going through the initial doctors visits for cancer treatment, she would try to engage her health providers in a conversation about environmental factors and cancer incidence, to no avail. In the medical literature, the link has been clearly shown time and time again. This to me pointed out something that I am personally disturbed by, which is the gap between scientific knowledge and practical knowledge. I think one of the reasons for publicly funded higher education is for professors to be researching in the public interest, but the way the career of professor is structured, credit is given only for publishing in specialized academic journals, read by other academics. In my field of Sociology, this is a huge problem, but it just seems even more urgent in the medical field.

Anyway, I recommend it! Go find a way to watch this film and get other people to see it too!