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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
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Living Downstream: The Life and Work of Sandra Steingraber Beginning in the early 1980s my friends and peers began dropping like flies – from cancer. People in their 30s and 40s. Up until that point ‘cancer’ was a word I heard only occasionally in conversation and on TV. It had next to no meaning. With this personal loss I became furious, frustrated, and heart-broken… and began thinking. I quickly came to the conclusion that cancer is caused by environmental toxins and endocrine-disrupting pharmaceuticals. I then could add ‘powerless-to-help’ to the list of my emotional responses. I still feel all of the above – especially in light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to fully open the floodgates of corporate money into our political processes.
Thank goodness Sandra Steingraber never let any possible feelings of powerlessness stop her crusading work to eliminate cancer-causing chemicals from our environment. Inspired by Steingraber’s book of the same name, producer/director Chanda Chevannes follows Steingraber through a plethora of scenes of her personal and professional lives – Steingraber provides additional narration. What emerges is a portrait of a quiet hero, fighting her own battle with cancer as she wages a war of information and words against the horrific poisoning of our environment and bodies.
I have a personal rule to not review a film unless I like it, unless it touches me in one way or another. Implicit in this rule is that I’m suggesting you see the film. And then some films I explicitly describe as must-see. This…, this one is an absolute must-see. Excuse my clichés, but “Living Downstream” is powerful, it is inspiring, it is moving, it is – quietly, like our hero – a tear-jerker. And, upon seeing it yourself, you are likely to make similar exhortations to your friends and family.