Hollywood producers come to Halifax to screen anti-uranium film ‘Hot Water’
Last Updated on 07:42 AM 07/15/13
Hollywood producers Liz Rogers and her production partner, Kevin Flint, shared their journey through the American Southwest and how it came to be contaminated with toxic substances and heavy metals due to the mining of uranium.
“This is poison,” said Rogers.
Rogers said the mining of uranium is “terrifying” because “it’s something we cannot control.”
“It’s dangerous and poisonous,” she added.
She pleaded with the audience to contact representatives, vote and get involved by donating time to the cause.
“We The People of Virginia, Inc.” worked with Rogers in bringing the film screening of “Hot Water” to Halifax County .
In the uranium-mining documentary, filmmakers Rogers and Flint begin in South Dakota witnessing communities overwhelmed by cancer from what they described as constant exposure to uranium from local mining interests.
They speak with academic experts who pierce through the industry’s claims of safety. They take samples showing that radioactive material is seeping toward the nation’s breadbasket.
Rogers and Flint follow the story to Oklahoma to explain the economic model of the industry.
Private companies mine the uranium for a massive profit. Local workers and residents are made promises, but when finally forced to admit the environmental and health impact of the mining, the companies take their profits, declare bankruptcy and saddle the American taxpayer with hundreds of billions of dollars in clean-up costs, according to the documentary.
In the film, Rogers and Flint speak with academic experts including biologist Charmaine Whiteface;
Dr. Kim Kearfott, nuclear engineer and professor of nuclear engineering at University of Michigan;
Dr. Hannan LaGarry, professor of geology at Oglala Lakota College;
Dr. Jim Stone, professor of civil engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines;
as well as former congressman and leading environmental supporter Dennis Kucinich.
Following the screening, Rogers and Flint received a standing ovation and were available for questions or comments
