Film Screening
Discussion to follow
THE BELOVED COMMUNITY (56 minutes)
A film by Pamela Calvert/Detroit Public Television
The nerve center of Canada’s petrochemical
industry, Sarnia, Ontario once enjoyed the highest standard
living in the country—but now the bill has come due, in
compromised environmental and community health. How do you
stay in the home you love when the price you pay may be not
only your own life, but the safety of future generations? In
The Beloved Community, a petrochemical town faces a toxic
legacy head-on.
Discussion:
Facilitated by Alaska Community Action on Toxics (Colleen
Keane, Shawna Larson, and Pam Miller)
In
this discussion, we will explore the latest science and
actions that we can take individually and collectively to
protect our health, as well as the health of our families
and communities.
When: May 9, 2007, 7 to 9 pm
Where: Out North Theater
3800 DeBarr Road
Anchorage, AK 99508-2011
For
more event information, please contact Alaska Community
Action on Toxics (ACAT) at 907.222.7714,
info@akaction.net, or
www.akaction.org.
More information on The Beloved Community:
In the summer of 2004, Canadian health researchers made a
startling discovery in the Chippewa birth records for the
city of Sarnia, an hour north of Detroit—for the past
decade, girl babies had been outnumbering boys at a rate of
2:1. Further investigation revealed large numbers of
miscarriages, a cluster of reproductive cancers in young
women, and widespread neurological problems among the band's
children—all signs of potential exposure to a cluster of
hormone-mimicking chemicals called “endocrine disruptors.”
THE BELOVED COMMUNITY looks at a Great Lakes oil town facing
a toxic legacy head-on. The nerve center of Canada’s
petrochemical industry, Sarnia once enjoyed the highest
standard living in the country—but now the bill has come
due, in compromised environmental and community health.
The film poses the central question of how industrial
communities can find a healthy balance, and lets people
provide their own answers. How are chemical companies doing
remediation for decades of environmental impact? How can
Native people protect their future generations and their
land? What kinds of questions about public health should
people be asking? What do workers need to do not to trade
their lives for their livelihoods? What are oil companies
doing to prepare for the 21st century? And what
is the role of government, industry, citizen advocates, and
science and health care in deciding their communities’
future?
“Brings into focus the stark reality of pollution juxtaposed
against the cultural fabric of a strong tribal community
that is struggling to come to terms with the environmental
health problems and solve tehm in creative new ways. The
subject itself—oil pollution—is the most global chemical
pollution problem we face. This film is important for
everyone to see, especially those who are not yet convinced
that fossil fuels are harmful to our planet and its people.”
—Kathleen Burns,
www.sciencecorps.org
