Thirst for Justice: Film Screening and Panel Discussion

3405 Central Avenue Northeast,Albuquerque NM 87106

19 November, 2022

Description

NMELC is screening this very special film as part of our 35th Anniversary Celebrations. The screening is also a fundraiser for our organization. Proceeds will go directly to NMELC to fund our work in partnership with impacted Indigenous community members and other frontline community members fighting to protect and clean up drinking water sources from uranium contamination. Thirst for Justice, directed and produced by London-based filmmaker Leana Hosea, focuses on three battles for clean water—on Navajo Nation, in Flint, Michigan, and at Standing Rock—united in the belief that water is life. Leana Hosea will join us virtually from London, and Janene Yazzie, the main water protector featured in the film, will be present for the Q&A afterwards. The post-film discussion will be co-moderated by NMELC Executive Director Virginia Necochea and NMELC Senior Staff Attorney Eric Jantz. Other panelists TBD More about the film from distributor Bullfrog Films: Armed only with facts and their illnesses, extraordinary citizens take on industry and government, risking arrest to protect clean water. From Flint to the Navajo Nation, via Standing Rock, this is their story. THIRST FOR JUSTICE follows Janene Yazzie as she searches for the source of contamination in her son's school's water in Sanders, Arizona. She suspects drinking uranium-contaminated water from the 1979 Church Rock dam spill caused her ovarian cancer. Armed with a geiger counter she begins investigating radioactive waste on the Navajo Nation and finds areas hotter than evacuation zones in Chernobyl. When the epic movement for water justice ignites in Standing Rock, Janene is compelled to join. There she meets Flint water activist Nayyirah Shariff and their struggles converge. Janene travels to Flint, where she sees first hand the similarities between what's happening in this inner-city and the Navajo experience. The sacredness of water flows through the film, with the water ceremonies and teachings from water carriers, like Mary Lyons and other Water Protectors.