There (2019)

Documentary

73 min    -    Rating: 7.2

Ian Daniel / Ellen Page

John Bates, Dorene Bernard, Stephen Colbert…

Ellen Page and Gaycation collaborator Ian Daniel shift gears with the documentary There's Something in the Water, a disturbing and, frankly, terrifying portrait of ecological and social disasters in Page's native Nova Scotia. Based on Ingrid Waldron's incendiary study, the film follows Page as she travels to rural areas of the province that are plagued by toxic fallout from industrial development. As did Waldron, the filmmakers discover that these catastrophes have been precisely placed, all in remote, low income - and very often Indigenous or Black - communities. As the filmmakers observe, your postal code determines your health. We're introduced to many courageous women. Louise, from Shelburne, gives us a tour of a neighborhood in her hometown where every house has been affected by cancer. Michele fights to protect "A?se?k", or Boat Harbour, once a sanctuary for Indigenous people, now plagued by toxins spewed by a pulp and paper mill. The government only began addressing this when other whiter, wealthier communities were affected. (In one stomach-churning moment, it's explained that the company went to great effort to divert the offal towards "A?se?k".) And a group of "Mi?gmaq" a