We are launching into a new era of Ethereal Films which requires a big risk. We have launched a Patreon to gain regular support for free and consistent documentaries and video essays on various subjects.

https://www.patreon.com/EtherealFilms/posts/new-era-for-165854465?pr=true

We just launched our first new video about an incredible group of firefighters from North Carolina and their inspiring wins from advocacy. You can view it below - please consider sharing with folks you know.

We are still hard at work finishing GENX and will announce public release dates soon.

With love,

Eli & the EF Team

What’s going on with everything? Here’s a table of content, feel free to skip.

• Final steps of GENX edit

  • Final interview - Laura Bransford

  • Fall release schedule - late September

• Future of ethereal films

  • Office → New Studio

  • Our Future

We wrapped our last interview for GenX: Laura

Laura is a firefighter from Wilmington, North Carolina who has been a powerhouse of advocacy locally and nationally. She is part of a special task force within the IAFF to use advocacy to make firefighters safer and better supported. She is also a complete badass who we met in part, because she was a core leader in the fight to provide free cancer screenings for all county firefighters AND to find PFAS-free alternatives to daily station gear. We are honored to spotlight her efforts and grateful for the time she gave us. Our UNC Summer intern, Rou Yu, joined for this shoot as a Camera Operator and assistant director. They are currently working with me on a short film focusing more on Laura, which we will share soon.

Release Schedule!

Early October is our target for the first screenings of GenX. At first, these will be University and community partner events. We think the format of viewing is crucial to this story, so we are creating a campaign that centers EVENTS for screenings, not just showing up to watch something.

I have been working intensely on building our system and dashboard to do this, with extensive support coming from our outreach team: Ava, Rou Yu, Lizzie and I.

We have 3 more stages of final edit + feedback, which leaves last comments for trusted allies, producer, and expert review for final fact checking before the last polishes. This means any remaining screenings are the final film, woo!

It’s been a longer road than expected which I think comes from just how many people are invested in this issue. We recognize we can only tell some portion of this story and appreciate the many generous folks who have worked with us over the years.

Subscribe now

Future of Ethereal Films

Last month we left our office in downtown Hillsborough, our home of 3 years.

It was bittersweet, but ultimately I think the best decision.

I’ve transitioned to a new studio I built over the last year as we consider what the future should look like for Ethereal Films as an organization. After GENX and THE BOWL (which releases on PBS later this year) are released, we are making a big change.

Ethereal Films will focus now on client projects.

Meaning we will work as a hired team for productions and as consultants for fundraising, events and outreach. This has been a very unique 9 years, but I have realized that I need more direct time working with people on a regular basis. Projects that get me out in the community and helping awesome people and organizations often are what I would like to focus my energy on, instead of long-form pieces.

I do have a few passion projects I’ll be releasing in the near future including

• A documentary about ADULT BRACES

• A documentary about MICROBIOME REPLACEMENT THERAPY

• A documentary about CHRONIC BACK PAIN

At least for now - if you want to hire us, feel free to get in touch.

We’re best with non-profits or impact focused companies.

Leave a comment

See y’all soon at our upcoming screenings!

if you missed it, 2 days ago the US EPA announced plans to roll back regulations on 4 PFAS and delay compliance deadlines for the other 2. it took so many years to get these regulations in the first place so this is a massive step backwards; it will definitely be fought in court but really just shows why there is still more we must resist. I’ll do another post on that very soon.

I’m sharing a brief recap on the GenX release. this update will cover:

• 3 weeks with finishing editors

• final shoot plans

• upcoming last feedback screening

• release timeline

feel free to skip to the sections that interest you.

finishing edits

editing a film can sometimes feel like an endless process. much like the essay in high school you spent far too long on, this meme sums up our experience.

and yet, we can see that the end is almost here (GenXFinalFinalFinal.proj)

Luis and Jordan, our finishing editors, have been working at almost breakneck speed to completely recreate the film. in essence, they broke everything apart to reassemble something smoother and more cohesive that will land with a broad audience. this is technical work and it costs quite a lot of money. to give a taste, we broke into 5 figures by the second week. we believe it will all be worth it in the end. this week, they have provided an internal version of the film which intentionally has a few missing elements - those are the story holes that I will be capturing next in our final shoots.

immediate impressions: they have done a fantastic job at focusing the story. next we have to fill gaps which includes some final filming.

final shoot plans

Ray, our director of photography, and I will spend the next 1-2 months on final filming. the window is wide because Ray and I are each still dealing with health issues that make things slower.

unfun update as of May 19th - Ray’s treatment has to be accelerated so he cannot join us for any final shoots. this means we have to find and hire different producers to help us finish.

unfun update #2 - my office has mold which may have been contributing to months of weird health issues. in the short term, we’ve quarantined.

these final shoots include a small number of interviews and some creative scenes to slot into those missing holes from the new edit. this is part of how we are incorporating the roughly ~300 data points of feedback we received over our series of test screenings. we are feeling really good about that and it’s so good that folks have been so helpful to share their perspectives.

these final shoots will cost about $7000 in travel and staff fees to pull off. Ray and I planned to do this, but unfortunately that’s no longer the case.

if you have the means, please donate to help us finish this important story.

Donate

upcoming feedback screening

once the final scenes are shot, we’ll pass it all back to the editors with any remaining input and they will create a screenable demo of the film. we plan to host this screening in Wilmington with some great friends of ours. this will be completely open the public and as always we welcome all voices and perspectives.

release timeline

that feedback will be immediately packaged for the editors who will make any remaining adjustments that are possible before moving on to the ‘finishing’ - legal review, color correction, and final sound prep before it’s publicly launched.

• final shoots ~ late June/July

• final feedback ~ July

• final release ~ August and beyond

as we get close to that stage, we’ll do a call for screenings partners on this newsletter to host events with the film. we cannot wait for this stage and we are so very close. thank you everyone for your support and patience.

With love,

Eli

6 hearings were hosted across the state to accept public comments for new potential rules relating to industry pollution. We have made a few short videos about it to help get the word out.

Over 300 people gathered April 23rd, 2026 in Wilmington, North Carolina to speak on proposed rules by the state's regulating body, the environmental management commission (EMC). The proposed rules affect 3 specific PFAS chemicals and another chemical called 1-4, Dioxane but include no enforcement mechanisms for the industries they would regulate. North Carolina had decades of historic PFAS contamination from industry especially in the Cape Fear River basin around Wilmington. This is what the public had to say.

GenX Edit

One last update is that the editors are moving along very well. They have fully restructured the story and we are meeting weekly. We are continuing to review the community feedback collected over the last few months, all of which is SO appreciated.

We plan to host one final feedback screening in the near future.

We’ll keep you posted.

With gratitude,
Eli

regarding GenX, the new editors and our team met this week to develop our game plan moving forward. it’s a lot of restructuring and reshuffling before we look at any new filming to finalize the story. when there’s something to share, I’ll update you.

With love and appreciation,

Eli

Take a moment and share this online to help gain excitement as we move towards full launch!

As of today we welcomed on our finishing editor to get GenX over the finish line. This is a crucial step in telling the best story possible. For those outside of the industry, here is a brief summary for why we had to do this.

Documentaries, like all films, require a story editor. For GenX, out of necessity, that was me (Eli) for the vast majority of time. Mostly, because editors are very expensive. However, as GenX grew and evolved that became harder. Especially when it became more involved with my personal life. On top of this, also being the director, producer, and 50x other rolls, being the editor became a big problem. This story and most of the footage is deeply connected to my life and lived experience.

We always wanted a separate editor once we had the funds and last year this was the plan - and then my editor got cancer.

So we had a backup, my trusted producer who had all the time to work on it, and then he also got cancer.

So once again, out of necessity for our planned screenings in January, I had to edit what I could. But ultimately it was clear that this was a temporary fix that only an outside editor could actually complete.

We’ve now met several times and have developed a plan to finish the film with his guidance to meet the needs for the story and the communities whose stories are contained within. We hope this will go as efficiently as possible.

In the meantime, we are still planning out our tour and rely on external support to make all of this happen. Please consider making a donation to our campaign.

Donate

Thank you so much for following along with this long journey, we are almost over the finish line.

With admiration,

Eli

In early January, our documentary GENX had two incredible opening night screenings hosted by UNC and Duke. These were packed rooms and in many ways felt like a dream come true after 9 years of intense, work.

But just 3 days before, I was in the emergency room because I couldn’t form sentences or keep my head up on my own.

In fact, in the months leading up during our series of work-in-progress screenings my body was falling apart in many ways. The feeling of responsibility to carry a story that affects so many people and has involved SO many voices over nearly 10 years on my shoulders was weighing so heavy. At the first screening, I developed an eye infection so severe I had to go to a specialty clinic the next day so I could see. At the second, my eye had healed but my stress was now hijacking my autonomic nervous system causing involuntary sweating, freezing cold hands and generally just making existence hard. I tried to keep all of this internal but now it’s apparent that these problems aren’t just going away.

Why was my body failing? What was so stressful?

When you share an unfinished work with dozens of people and ask them to criticize it, it’s a very vulnerable experience. Documentaries, like other art, are ultimately subjective which means that the pile of feedback will have lots of contradictions. When the story also involves your personal life, like GENX does for me, it’s impossible to fully remove yourself from that feedback. It can feel like pieces of you being pulled apart, all in effort to make a better final story but sometimes the feedback does not land well.

Support GenX

GENX began with me learning that Cape Fear River was poisoned with PFAS for 40+ years. I thought that understanding it's History would shed light on clues to fix the problem. In some ways it did, and the journey for me quickly grew personal as my mom’s chronic health issues that first inspired me to study health seemed increasingly more intertwined with toxic contaminants in our environment. This connection grew further as I learned that my own chronic health issues seemed cut from the same cloth, and I trusted my producers who encouraged that the GenX story morph into one that shares these personal struggles and goals to help create a final & cohesive film.

But you can’t please everyone, and it breaks my heart.

While the vast majority of our audiences have been so kind, warm and positively receptive of the film — a few have been critical. One that weighs so heavy on my heart is an ally in this environmental advocacy work who did not appreciate that GENX included my life or my mom’s experiences and challenges with chronic illness. That opinion cut very deep, because this person is a great fighter and has worked with us in the past but seemed disappointed that the story in their mind was not the story we presented. I worked very hard when this person first shared their opinions at an early cut to make as many changes as possible but ultimately I was not able to satisfy them. We expected them to be very excited at the prospect of having a story that could rally people, educate & inspire them to take action - the feelings that audiences describe to us after our January screenings.

To be clear, we are currently in the final editing phase awaiting a senior editor’s review (who has a neutral eye for the topic) to help make this the best final version possible. It means we’re in a great spot to listen for final feedback & possible adjustments before the story goes out to the world.

It’s hard not to feel gutted by that when you spend 9 years working on something with your whole heart in an art-form that is so disturbingly unsupported.

It’s not all bad - but it has been harder than expected.

Our greatest strengths so far have been colleges - which is where we have set most of our sights for the tour. Screenings will require funding and planning so we are seeking donations & event partners to make these happen. We will make an open call for screenings once the film is completely finished.

Subscribe now

With honestly,

Eli

If you want to know how guarantee a film screening near you, skip below.

Sammy, Ava and myself (Eli) along with the dozens of other collaborators have had so many meetings, shoots, edit chats, review sessions, test screenings, phone calls, laughs, tears and even a stress-induced trip to the emergency room right (not fun). All to finally birth the baby that is the GENX documentary.

Subscribe now

Now, we stand on the other side of two remarkable screening events hosted by two of the biggest colleges in North Carolina: Duke & UNC (ironic huh?)

We took a moment to celebrate all of the good news:

• Hundreds of people (about 450 total) showed up to these screenings

• They came from an impressively wide range of backgrounds and locations

• Dozens of people came up to speak with me after these screenings, explaining how one aspect or another moved them, or inspired them to do something.

• Our screening partners were VERY happy with the events, a few quotes:

“The film was excellent, and the turnout was great. What a tremendous success. ”

Rebecca Fry, PhD, Director of the Institute for Environmental Health Solutions, UNC

“Your work clearly touched the audience. I heard from students, faculty, and community organizers afterwards wanting to get involved.”

Ryke Longest JD, Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, Duke

The earliest expected is May, because we plan to release this film exclusively with in-person events like these. There are many reasons, but the core reason is because this story exists to inspire change. The energy and experience from a live event, is not something that can be replicated by sitting at home flicking through Netflix.

With help.

We plan to announce a series of screenings soon, beginning in May and lasting indefinitely. We have designed a structure to be highly involved or entirely hands-off to help the thousands of communities who could benefit from this story. We have confidence that this can work because we did it before.

When we released our film BURNED, it began with a single premiere hosted by the International Association of Firefighters at their annual leadership conference. This one event, sparked hundreds more. By the end of our campaign, we facilitated over 1500 individual events across the globe.

So if you want this film to come to you there are TWO ways you can help.

1. Recommend that an organization you know hosts a screening. This could be a school, a business, a fire department, a non-profit, or just a few people with some time and money. Ask them to get in touch via email.

2. Donate to our Campaign. Every $500 raised buys a community screening. As we plan screenings, we’d like to launch 10 big events across the US that can cascade into more, just like we did with BURNED. This would cost $50,000 - based on the cost of the Duke/UNC events. When you donate, please leave a comment on WHERE you want a screening (details help!) And share the donation page :)

We have over 2000 readers, so if everyone gave just $25 we would be done.

Realistically, far fewer have donated but also some give significantly more.

Donate

Thank you so much to Andrea, Allison, Nancy, Charlotte and the anonymous donors who gave since our January events - and everyone else who has supported.

If you’ve felt moved or touched by our work in any way, please I am asking that you contribute whatever you can to our campaign and share with others.

The only way we’ve been able to make any of this happen over the past 8 years are donations. I spend months out of each year fundraising to pay our team & bills.

Soon, we will take open call for requests of place to include on our tour.

As always, thanks so much for your time.

With love & respect,
Eli and the team,

What a fantastic turnout last night. On behalf of our team, I want to thank each and every person showing up. Hoping for a crowd of at least 100, we had over 300 people in attendance last night! WOW!

I am SO grateful for the incredible faculty, students, and talented attorneys who joined us to speak and supported this effort.

This makes me SO proud to be a Tarheel <3

GenX is the culmination of almost 10 years’ worth of research, travel, risk-taking, editing, feedback, and more editing. We have worked tirelessly to present a story that contains the scale of this issue, but also highlights our power of community.

The weight of forever chemicals comes with a lot of grief, but we hope last night left you all feeling more energized, because we are ready to do much more. Our mission now is to help host hundreds more events like last night. However, even free events take a lot of time and effort to plan.

If you want to support us, we invite you to make a donation to the campaign. Events like last night can cost $5000 or more to arrange, so every donation makes a difference. Donations are HOW we do this work, there are no secret pots of money for documentary filmmakers.

Our global tour with BURNED had 1600 events, and we’d like to double that for GenX.

We need to raise a final $60,000 and then we will officially launch the tour - which will be announced via this Newsletter.

We humbly thank you all again for your time and wish to keep in touch.

With love and care,

Eli, Sammy, Ava, Maya, Diana, & the whole Ethereal Films team

Share

We have been working non-stop to prepare and cannot wait to share what we have ready, even if it’s still a little rough around the edges.

Thanks everyone for your love, kindness and support.

Onward,
Eli

“How long could it take, a year?”

- Sammy and I when we first began GenX.

I became fixated on the contamination of Wilmington, my home town back in 2017 when it was revealed to the public. I took it very personally because I just so happened to be in college learning a lot of relevant subjects and my whole motivation in school was simple: addressing the root of illness.

That's because of my mom. She has a rare and chronic condition which modern medicine considers incurable. The toll that this has and continues to have on our family is incalculable. But she has taught me the awesome power of resilience because of this.

When I began researching the decades of corporate poisoning that afflicted Wilmington (and actually most corners of the earth), something clicked. Advanced in public health were rewriting the model of disease, which had been laser focused on genetics previously. After the human genome project, we learned how wrong that hypothesis was.

“The Human Genome Project was a $3 billion investment, and what did we find out?” says Thomas Hartung, a toxicologist at Johns Hopkins. “Five percent of all disease is purely genetic. Less than 40 percent of diseases even have a genetic component.”

Now we see that nearly all diseases are significantly driven by environmental factors: infections, stress, trauma, foods & pollutants are all driving the disease outcomes - leaving genes as a relevant but very small part of the equation.

It has felt very full circle to work in this field but also incredibly difficult in nearly every sense. The field of documentary is a complete mess, fundamentally lacking any real support, infrastructure or guidance for producers to carry projects especially ones that involve complex subjects. Part of the need for 8 years, has been to scrape together the immense resources necessary to:

• Research

• Interview

• Record

• Plan

• Edit

• Screen

• Market

• Design

• Not go insane when staring at footage for 8hours a day.

In the last month or so we hosted 2 work-in-progress screenings of GenX to finally share some of this story with locals.

We had not disclosed that our two editors were both diagnosed with cancer out of nowhere earlier this year. This has been devastating for all of us and left us particularly in a hard spot while trying to wrap up this story. It has felt like a cruel irony, but we are thinking about them everyday. We check in frequently.

Some of our dear friends who work in this area attended, and a few of them had very strong negative reactions which was challenging for everyone. It's so much emotional and spiritual pain to work on something for so long and feel devastated that someone you respect did not enjoy themselves. But also we are so grateful for the honesty and glad we embraced the naked vulnerability of this.

Our second screening was considerably different, thanks to this feedback and weeks of sleepless nights cutting the film together.

This event showed us that we were very close to the story we want to tell. I have continued nonstop editing while fighting a few infections myself (life never slows down).

We are on schedule still for our special, pre-release screenings in North Carolina the 2nd week of January before public release later in the year.

January 14th at UNC Chapel Hill and January 15th at the Durham PSI Theatre, both free with details forthcoming with special guest, Rob Bilott.

We are almost over the finish line, thanks to everyone who has encouraged and supported us along this journey.

With love,

Eli

On average, a dozen people is a good turnout for these events. We had over 70 people in attendance which was awesome and also terrifying. We have invested over 8 years of our lives into this project which has included so many other tasks besides filming (research, outreach, meetings, scheduling, raising money constantly to pay for equipment, labor, insurances and a million other things) all the while being very personally tied up in the issues itself.

I am so incredibly grateful for the folks who showed up and share very honestly what worked and what did not. One thing this screening taught me is that more vulnerability will be important for this story to succeed.

To practice that, I want to share that for me this event was what I wanted but also deeply physically stressful.

The days leading up I had so much tension that my eyelid became swollen, almost shut by the night of the screening. Fortunately, I mostly just had to sit there and receive all of the criticism to digest later.

We have had several meetings to review notes, many long conversations with attendees in the days following and feel good about how we can shape the film to meet these needs. Thanks so much for everyone pouring their love and consideration into this and trusting us to do what's right. We are imperfect humans and put this together to share this story with our community.

We plan to have one more work-in-progress screening in Wilmington on Dec 17th which will look quite different from this last version. I'll share details to RSVP soon.

With love,

eli

we’ve been quietly working to wrap up the GenX film after over 8 years work. it’s impossible to put into words just how much effort this project has taken and how excited we are feeling to finally share this story with the world.

real talk, on the production team we’ve had multiple major health issues arise including cancer and surgeries that have brought new challenges as we bring this story to a close. still, we persist and are planning to host a small, early work-in-progress screening of the film in CARY, North Carolina later this month.

if you are in the area, you can RSVP for free at this link.

more news to follow - bonus pic from us recording some final voice over :)

-Eli and the team

how does anything get made?

someone pays for it.

when you grow up with very little, it can make creating art feel inaccessible. or, the opposite can happen. the biggest requirement truly is:

time (n.)

our most precious resource which, under capitalism is often liquidated to cash. at least, that’s the premise the capitalists offer. this can quickly diminish the value of creation and art as a whole, when we simply view it as a final output based on a #.

art is special and many of its values are intrinsic and not valued by capitalism. the act of creation is something only gained from participation. paying someone else for that robs you of that value and diminishes your experience. that doesn’t mean we can’t have help and collaboration, but if you outsource the whole experience then you’ve just missed out on the point of creating as a whole.

/// let’s go back to the original prompt —→ how does anything get made? ///

or even better, a question most artists ask:

how can I get paid to make my art?

or at least how can I think less about money to focus on creation

at the start of my journey into documentary and running my own business, this was question #1.

documentary is a very complex field with several different skill sets, rolls, ethical challenges, systemic weak points, industry gatekeepers and tools which are kind of essential to produce. how the hell was I supposed to manage all of that without money? at my beginning, I had another job — actually I had 3ish jobs I was bouncing between. we all need to eat and pay basic upkeep, on top of any other costs of our work. if you want that work to be sustainable, it needs to be even more than that.

the ethical dilemma of profit from art

let’s pretend you somehow figure all of the things out to make an incredible film — what now?

you just simply sell it to Netflix and you’re good? maybe HBO wants it to and a bidding war results so you pocket a few $million and you’re set?

reality: that does not happen.

there are few examples of massive purchases on ‘Indie films’ from streaming platforms but within the details you see how not random those situations were. they had strong connections, large bodies of work and major financial backing that carried the project along for years. the winners win more → we aren’t seeing Kevin Smith career launchers like Clerks from a chance screening, those are fables.

we are living in a media saturated age, thanks YouTube~

the truth is that even getting your work seen and engaged with, is more challenging than ever. decisions on who distributes, let alone purchases content, is far more arbitrary and predetermined than ever. platforms want to keep viewers and engage in specific ways → in documentary, where we are often pushing paradigms or challenging tough viewpoints (trying to make viewers think) we often are not meeting the narrow goals of a streaming platform. so here’s the dilemma, why would they pay for something that isn’t the safe bet they want to make?

it isn’t impossible, just impractical.

these thoughts aren’t meant to discourage, just to be real. selling films in this ‘market’ is a majorly uphill battle and I argue comes mostly from being a strong salesperson than the quality of your work, therefore…

what if we got paid upfront instead?

the true mountain of work involved, I didn’t feel like I could pull it off unless I knew that this could take up most of my time. so I shifted almost all of my spare time into figuring out where to get $ → on top of my 3 jobs and trying to produce my film owning 0 equipment.

it took 11 months of constant effort before I had much to show for it. up until this point, the tally went roughly like this:

• online donations via social media, $450

• fundraising event with a dozen volunteers, $900

• request for money from wealthy family, $0

• ‘no’ count from outreach, 131

not even close to covering basic life-admin and honestly I was incredibly discouraged. and then, after what felt like an eternity someone took an interest. she was struck by the project and my passion, so I began answering her questions about my ambitions and goals. it was sort of like completing a grant application but in a long winded emails with a semi-stranger.

she liked what I said, and invited me to her home for a lunch and chat. of course I dressed the part and prepared to be myself, at this point with no expectations of funding because the NO count was too demoralizing. then, at the end of our lunch without much warning she said

I’m going to give you $20,000

just like that, I had funding. sure, it didn’t cover the whole project but it was a huge start. at the time, that was enough to mean I could actually focus on this fully. it taught me that there were other opportunities to support this work, they just require some complex puzzle solving. because this wasn’t a straight forward road map, but something I had to piece together as I went along.

since then I have earned a living every year from my fundraising efforts so I can work on my art

i’m about to give some free training on how other folks can do the same for their projects.

I was invited to join the Southern Documentary Fund as a professional mentor this Fall. this means I’m a free resource to talk & advise with makers in the South who are fiscally sponsored by the SDF. this is easy to do, you just need a non-fiction project to apply with.

recently more filmmakers have contacted me seeking advice on funding their projects. it’s clear that everyone needs money for their work, and for some projects I think my approach can be really effective. a few teams have hired me as a consultant, but right now the SDF program means that I have to help for free!

if you aren’t an SDF member, my webinar is open to everyone to join. it’ll be a 1 hour presentation with Q&A about my approach, I’ll do another announcement when we have a date scheduled.

in summary~

art is essential for life and artists deserve compensation. there are more avenues for funding than folks realize and we deserve to be paid.

get your bag queens,

Eli

Share

The history of fighting forever chemicals began as a legal battle. When a rural cattle farmer named Wilbur realized that the DuPont chemical company had poisoned his land, drinking water and entire livestock - it was attorney Rob Bilott who stepped into action.

The bulk of what we know about these chemicals was because of this work. The legal battle v DuPont revealed decades of internal documents spelling out the dangers, the immense impact across the country, and how internal choices by DuPont were to keep all of this suppressed for the sake of huge profits. Rob’s work began with a focus on “PFOA” or “C8”, which was the most scrutinized type of forever chemical within the companies. The mounting information on all forever chemicals draws heavily from what we’ve learned about C8.

My point here is that lawyers and the legal process have played an essential role in this issue. Both in opening the floodgates on information which these corporations would have otherwise hid, but also in creating some kind of accountability for the innumerable damage from this greed. I sat down to interview Rob’s former mentor, Tom Terp to learn what this experience was like from a leadership position. Rob’s pathway to take on DuPont was ambitious and unusual, yet Tom was supportive at a crucial time and now the whole world has him to thank for what was uncovered.

Lawsuits, and the mounting success that Rob and the Taft Law Firm have created are building exponential traction. While the first wins took a very long time, we are witnessing a snowball effect.

That growing liability is making real pressure on these companies and their investors to give up the game. While it feels good, it’s also morally complex because not every lawfirm has the best intentions and there are plenty who are seeing these opportunities as earnings for themselves and disregarding the substantial human harm at play. Recovering damages from these selfish corporations must prioritize helping those of us who are hurt, first and foremost, and then the damage should add to that pressure to get these companies to quit this practice of producing toxic things.

Part of my work on the GenX documentary has included service for the North Carolina Attorney General’s office, who I also interviewed for the film.

When working closely on firefighting specific issues, I realized we had a strong case for the State to take on. The state protects its natural resources, like waterways and land, so I prepared a great deal of information to share with their office with hopes that they would take action.

Amazingly, they did. Several months after we met, they announced lawsuits on the exact claims I had outlined. I’m sure I was one of many contributing voices, but it’s cool to see that I had a part to play. Let’s keep suing them into submission until they fix their mess.

Stay hopeful,

Eli

Links: https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/megan-peck-shub

https://www.parents.com/megan-peck-shub-6891274

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-morin-70961416/

https://www.hendystreet.com/

Links: https://www.paperhandpuppet.org/

Links: https://www.taftlaw.com/people/robert-a-bilott/

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html