Beyond the Classroom presents the award-winning documentary "Living Downstream" on Monday, March 30th at 7:00 pm!

Monday, March 30, 7:00-9:00 pm

South Campus Commons Building 1, Room 1102

Based on the acclaimed book by ecologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., Living Downstream is an eloquent and cinematic documentary film. This poetic film follows Sandra during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. After a routine cancer screening, Sandra receives some worrying results and is thrust into a period of medical uncertainty. Thus, we begin two journeys with Sandra: her private struggles with cancer and her public quest to bring attention to the urgent human rights issue of cancer prevention.

 

But Sandra is not the only one who is on a journey—the chemicals against which she is fighting are also on the move. We follow these invisible toxins as they migrate to some of the most beautiful places in North America. We see how these chemicals enter our bodies and how, once inside, scientists believe they may be working to cause cancer.

 

Several experts in the fields of toxicology and cancer research make important cameo appearances in the film, highlighting their own findings on two pervasive chemicals: atrazine, one of the most widely used herbicides in the world, and the industrial compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Their work further illuminates the significant connection between a healthy environment and human health.

 

At once Sandra’s personal journey and her scientific exploration, Living Downstream is a powerful reminder of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land, and water

 

• “Handsomely photographed and powerfully argued. . . . Steingraber's scientific cool and unflagging sense of mission make for an arresting portrait of a self-styled modern-day Rachel Carson.” – Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post.

 

• “An incredibly moving film. Living Downstream is informative on many levels, with just the right amount of detail. It will reach out to those outside the environmental health movement, rather than just speaking to those within. It will connect us all and it will help us to reflect on how contamination of the environment is contributing to the cancer epidemic.” -- Genon Jensen, Executive Director of Health and Environment Alliance.

 

 

For details, go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/1532436200373004/