The Devil We Know

Director: Stephanie Soechtig

Institute History

Description

In 1945, DuPont introduced Teflon to the marketplace and changed millions of American households. Today, a biopersistent chemical used in the creation of those products is in the bloodstream of 99 percent of all Americans.

A compelling and ultimately terrifying watch that will make you question everything in your kitchen, The Devil We Know comprehensively lays out the history of the DuPont corporation’s use of the chemical C8, examines its environmental and health impact (and the company’s awareness of that impact), and celebrates the everyday whistleblowers and fact finders who helped bring this crisis to the public’s attention. Director Stephanie Soechtig (a Sundance Film Festival alum with Fed Up and Under the Gun) and co-director Jeremy Seifert create an investigative documentary with stakes at once both personal and looming as they weave together the first-hand stories of those personally affected by DuPont’s Parkersburg, West Virginia, plant with an alarming portrait of the potential consequences of corporations’ unchecked use of chemicals that go on to permeate the living world.

— H.Z.

Screening Details

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