Newswise — Ithaca College’s Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) will join Cinemapolis in presenting the world premiere of “Living Downstream.” Directed by Canadian filmmaker Chanda Chevannes, the film documents ecologist Sandra Steingraber’s private battle with cancer and her public fight to bring attention to the urgent human rights issue of cancer prevention. Based on Steingraber’s book of the same name, the film will be screened on Saturday, April 3, at 7 p.m. at Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green St., in Ithaca. Steingraber and Chevannes will introduce the film and conduct a discussion after the screening. Tickets will be sold at the door.
Told from Steingraber’s unique perspective as a biologist, ecologist and poet, “Living Downstream” is the personal story of a bladder cancer survivor as well as a scientific inquiry into two toxic chemicals—atrazine and PCBs—and their possible health effects.
“In the film we follow these invisible toxins as they migrate to some of the most beautiful places in North America,” Chevannes said. “We see how these chemicals enter our bodies and how, once inside, scientists believe they may be working to cause cancer. ‘Living Downstream’ is a powerful reminder of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our environment.”
Steingraber holds a doctorate in biology from the University of Michigan and a master’s in English from Illinois State University. A Scholar in Residence in Ithaca College’s Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies since 2003, Steingraber was a featured expert in the Bill Moyers PBS documentary “Kids and Chemicals: Are We Poisoning Our Children?” In addition to “Living Downstream,” she has authored “Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood,” “The Spoils of Famine,” and a volume of poetry, “Post-Diagnosis.” The second edition of “Living Downstream,” which is updated with the latest scientific evidence, will be available from Da Capo Press in April. In addition to directing “Living Downstream,” Chevannes, along with Nathan Shields, both of The People’s Picture Company in Toronto, produced the film. The Ithaca premiere will be followed by a series of North American screenings scheduled to take place in the coming months. For more information on these upcoming events, visit www.livingdownstream.com.
Beginning in September, the film will be available on DVD for educational and community use. For ordering information, visit www.livingdownstream.com/order_the_dvd.php.
For more information on FLEFF, contact festival codirector Patricia Zimmermann at [email protected].
Launched in 1997, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival was an outreach project from the Center for the Environment at Cornell University. In 2005 the festival moved permanently to Ithaca College, where it is housed in the Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies as a program to link intellectual inquiry and debate to larger global issues.
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