Living Downstream

Like her hero, the pioneering environmental writer and activist Rachel Carson (author of Silent Spring), Sandra Steingraber is a cancer victim. Diagnosed at age 20, she successfully battled the disease for 30 years. During that time she’s used her knowledge and training as a biologist to bridge the gap between what scientists and the medical community regard as the causes of cancer. Steingraber grew up surrounded by toxic chemical discharge from industrial agriculture and is certain that her childhood environment and her health as an adult are intimately connected. She asks one of the essential questions of our age: How much proof is necessary to treat industrial contamination of air, soil and streams as human rights issues? This is a powerful and compelling film about a woman whose brilliance is surpassed only by her honesty and grit.