Anthony Baxter
By Cassandra West
Screening Saturday, March 6, 6:30 p.m. CST
“Flint: Who Can You Trust?” is full of twists and turns. Journalist/filmmaker Anthony Baxter goes beyond the headlines in Flint, Mich., where a government poisoned its own citizens’ water supply, to show the complete breakdown of authority, public trust and faith in the truth itself. “Flint” is a powerful investigation of the breathtaking scope of toxic pseudo-science, celebrity activism, and official negligence. Narrated by Alec Baldwin, the film reveals the devastating impact on poor people and people of color, which make up the majority of the residents in Flint, as they continue to seek justice and clean water.
Cassandra West reached the director Anthony Baxter in the Scottish coastal town Montrose, where his family goes back several generations.
Q: What drew you to doing this film?
A: I was in Detroit doing a free screening of a film called “A Dangerous Game” about the huge use of water in golf resorts around the world and their impact on the environment. Somebody at the screening said, “You should come through to Flint because we’ve got this issue with the water there.” This was in the summer of 2015.
I went through to Flint and one of the residents who I met there was planning to do a citywide water test because they had been shouting from the rooftops about the quality of the water, saying it was not safe, that they've been noticing sickness in their children and themselves, but nobody seemed to be listening. From that first visit in the summer of 2015, it was obvious to me that there was a huge problem, but it was also the case that nobody in authority seemed to be doing anything about it. So I started filming with that, and then later that year it became a huge story because The New York Times ran a piece showing how the switch to the Flint River in April 2014 had had an impact on lead levels in children across the city of Flint.
Q: What picture did you get of U.S. environmental justice?
A: Well, there really wasn't any justice for the people of Flint. There was no satisfactory outcome and still isn't. Obviously, there are now charges being faced by officials involved, from [former Michigan] Gov. [Rick] Snyder, which in a sense is some kind of turning against the state of affairs today.
Q: What were some hurdles you faced in getting the film made?
A: I suppose coming into Flint as an outsider, you might expect me to have hurdles, but I didn't feel that I did, certainly from the community. The families I followed in Flint were incredibly open, very giving of their time. As I do with all of the people I've followed in my films, I think about [the people of Flint] a lot. It was frustrating for me not to be able to sit down in an interview with [Snyder] because it would have been a good opportunity to put to him the plight that the people had suffered, but there wasn't that opportunity. He evaded the media as far as he could. I found people very open and very willing to participate and give me their time.
Q: Do you see this as an advocacy film or just pure storytelling?
A: I felt it was more important to me to tell the story of the residents and to show the confusion and the breakdown in trust over a period of time that unfolded while I was there. I mentioned the vacuum of mistrust and how when that happens, you have organizations that come in and say they're going to help people, and they don't always help them in the way that people need. They may be well meaning, but it just ends up almost like, for want of a better expression, muddying the waters and nobody knows who to trust. So sort of a major part of it was this difficulty for people to know who to trust, what to believe when they're told one thing one minute and the water is safe, but they turn on the tap and they feel that it's still not safe. And for very good reason because it wasn't safe.
We speak to residents and continue to keep in touch. We also had a screening of the film on the BBC here recently, which was very interesting to see how it went down with the audience here. People really felt deeply for the people of Flint, and that to me is something that is just hugely important to keep in the public eye, to keep that story very relevant today as it was when I first started doing it.
“Flint: Who Can You Trust?” screens tonight, Saturday 3/6 at 6:30. After the screening, stay connected to discuss the film with:
Facilitator Alejandro Bodipo-Memba, Founder & CEO, OVP Management Consulting
Resource Panelists:
Anthony Baxter, Director, Flint: Who Can You Trust?
Nakiya Wakes, Resident of Flint, MI; film subject in “Flint: Who Can You Trust?”
Nathalie Baptiste, Reporter and Columnist, Mother Jones Magazine