OUT OF PLAIN SIGHT documentary review

A haunting tip prompts a Los Angeles Times reporter to discover that as many as a half a million barrels of toxic waste had been dumped into the ocean in the 50s through the early 60s. Thus begins the career-defining investigative reporting work from Los Angeles Times environmental journalist Rosanna Xia. In 2020, she was the first to break the story of DDT chemicals dumped into the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Southern California. The alarming and important journalistic series has gone from the pages of the newspaper now to big screens throughout the country as the independent documentary, “Out of Plain Sight.” DDT was once a heralded and frequently used pesticide, particularly known for controlling insects and vectors of disease, like malaria. While many at the time assumed the dumped chemicals would just be absorbed by the water, having little or no impact, quite the opposite is the case, with the dangerous effects lingering, if not rearing its ugly head all these decades later. To contradict an old turn of phrase that reporter Xia brings up in the film, dilution is NOT a solution to pollution.
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One of the earlier scenes from the documentary is of a wildlife veterinary team rescuing a sea lion washed ashore on a Southern California. It is one of many rescues of late in which the symptoms are the same: a sickly, middle-aged sea lion whose body is racked with cancer. As team member/veterinarian and cancer researcher, Alissa Deming explains how troubling these rescues and finding are. “When you say that 25 per cent of the sea lions we see in our hospital have cancer, that would be a ridiculously high rate even in a human hospital. It’s very abnormal to have a wildlife species, especially these young adults developing a cancer at such a high prevalence. They’re telling us something is going on in the environment.” What’s been going on, as the documentary reveals, is long term effects of the DDT toxic dumping by California Salvage as hired by Montrose Chemical Corporation.

Also early on in Xia’s exploration, are the questions she poses to herself and her editor that serve as catalyst for the investigation. “Is this (toxic dumping) an unknown chapter of history or a forgotten chapter of history?” She, along with the audience, quickly realize that this was not at all a secret. In fact, it was legal and sanctioned. If anything was a secret or unknown until recently, is the fact that what was originally thought of barrels of the chemical used for the dumping, was actually more of a measurement. In reality, the DDT waste was directly poured into the ocean. Since the uncovering of the DDT-related marine issues, a combination of federal and state funding has been dedicated to studying the full scope of the issues at hand. Next steps will involve research for solutions.

Xia who also serves as the film’s co-producer/co-director, takes viewers along as she interviews various scientists and experts that are gathering information on the situation and looking for solutions. Soon after the LA Times agreed to partner on the project, Xia joined forces with director Daniel Straub and a small, but experienced film team “with a track record of documenting issues with compassion and nuance.” According to Xia, they came up with a unique approach. “We agreed to approach each filming day as journalism first, which allowed my reporting to open doors that would otherwise have been impossible. Most notably, to bring the audience to hard-to-reach spaces across the silos of science, we pared down the film crew to only three people: myself, Straub and our cinematographer, who doubled as our film editor and deftly operated just one camera in the field.”

While there are a lot of academic-like, science-y type interviews, as to be expected, that at times can pull the average, non-science viewer out for just a bit, they are, thankfully, not done in the traditional “talking heads” format. Instead, the interviewees are in their environment talking things over with and explaining issues to Xia. The viewer gets the sense of following a reporter in the midst of uncovering the story. “We transcended the conventional documentary approach by replacing the sit-down interview with deeply-felt reflections that were captured at sea, in the lab, and during the process of my reporting. We spent entire weeks learning the rhythms of wildlife – and felt their suffering firsthand as we sought to give their lives meaning beyond death,” describes Xia. The film’s style and approach, coupled with the disturbing, yet invaluable information, and shot in way that is richly layered and deeply engaging, make for a vital addition to environmental storytelling. “Out of Plain Sight” is a documentary worth seeking out when at an independent theater and film festival near you, or when available for streaming.

April 21 - Roxy Theater, San Francisco at 7:15pm, with filmmakers Q & A to follow.
April 23 - Roxy Theater, San Francisco at 7:45pm, with filmmakers Q&A to follow
April 25 - San Diego Asian Film Festival/Ultrastars Cinema Mission Valley at 7pm

Directors: Rosanna Xia & Daniel Straub
Country: United States
Language: English
Run time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Production companies: LA Times Studios, Sypher Studios
Trailer - https://www.outofplainsight.com/about#trailer

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