Living Downstream

Based on the acclaimed book by ecologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., Living Downstream is an eloquent and cinematic feature-length documentary. 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 and public health 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 without our knowledge or consent, and how, once inside, scientists believe they may be working to cause cancer. Living Downstream features the work of many leading researchers, including: Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., George Woodwell, Ph.D., Tyrone Hayes, Ph.D., Stephane Lair, Ph.D., and John Spinelli, Ph.D. At once Sandra's personal journey and her rigorous scientific investigation, 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.