Chapter 19: Exploring Issues of Environmental and Socioeconomic Justice in the Flint Water Crisis: Film: Flint (2017)

Exploring Issues of Environmental and Socioeconomic Justice in the Flint Water Crisis

The Flint water crisis (2014) and resulting public health emergency impacted more than 100,000 citizens living in Flint. The impacted citizens were disproportionately poor and people of color. The water crisis cannot and should not be disentangled from issues of socioeconomic injustice. This film engages environmental injustice through an historical event and provides a unique and important opportunity to bring environmental injustice into the social studies classroom through a film case study of socioeconomic issues.

The Lifetime TV movie Flint (2017) is the dramatic retelling of the water crisis which took place in Flint, Michigan beginning in 2014. While made for television rather than the big screen, the film was nominated for several accolades at the NAACP Image Awards, The Critics Choice Awards and the Primetime Emmy Awards. The film closely follows the stories of four female activists, impacted intimately by urgent and catastrophic health consequences related to water contamination, who join together to fight their city and state governments for improved water. They work tirelessly to document and share the grotesque health impacts of the change in water supply to Flint which took place in 2014, including increased miscarriages, brain damage, rashes, seizures, and intestinal disorders. In the film, these activists find success through building a coalition with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, faculty at Virginia Tech, and the American Civil Liberties Union to demand a correction to the water supply. The film concludes with the correction of the problem and the portrayal of a victory for the activists followed in the film. While the film ends before this, In 2017, several Michigan officials were charged with involuntary manslaughter for their role in the Flint water crisis. These charges have recently been dropped and there is ongoing conversation about who should be held responsible and how. The legacy of this crisis is still unfolding and as of this writing, many people in Flint still do not have access to safe drinking water.