In terms of working with Ellen and Ian? Well, exciting! Whether or not they would admit it, I think any professor would like to have this happen to them. Some of them might say no, but they’re lying. When I was writing my book in a room in 2016 and 2018, I certainly didn’t think any of this would happen. What it does is it elevates the work in a way that reaches people and now, through Netflix, reaches a global audience. Who wouldn’t want that?
When making the film, it would have been impossible to predict that it would be released in the midst of a global pandemic. Have you been thinking a lot recently about the intersections of COVID-19 and the impacts of environmental racism?
EP: Yes, absolutely. I would imagine that’s what we’re all probably thinking about the most, in many ways, with regards to this situation. Even in the sense that obviously this film has so much to do with water. You think of indigenous and black communities who don’t have clean water. So the most common piece of advice is to self-isolate but also to “wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.” But they can’t wash their hands in that water, you know? One could go on and and on and on — and that’s the case with all of the injustices in which marginalized people always seem to be on the frontlines, disproportionately suffering the most consequences.
ID: I do think it’s a really good time for this message to come out, because I think people are at home reflecting on just how vulnerable they are and on how vulnerable the most marginalized communities are. I think people are empathizing more because they’re going through similar things that maybe they wouldn’t have had to before. What we’re seeing in these towns [in Nova Scotia] is that their water is already poisoned, they’re already getting cancer, they’re already worried about bacteria in their bodies. Capitalism is already destroying communities and I think now we’re seeing globally how that’s affecting everyone. We’re all talking about it now but I think these communities really have been talking about it for so long.
IW: It’s those who are low-income on social assistance or who are already suffering from health and mental health issues that will be further impacted or compromised by the pandemic. It’s the same conversation that people have been having about environmental racism: While environmental injustices may happen even in white communities, the people who will be most affected are those who are already suffering from longstanding vulnerabilities like food security issues and poverty.
Ellen, having grown up in Nova Scotia, did this film complicate your idea of home?
EP: Of course it has in many ways. I have spent a while now learning more about the true history of Nova Scotia versus what I learned growing up in school and the imagery that was perpetuated. Learning about these situations and about these communities where I used to go play soccer tournaments as a kid — or, as you see in the film, I was in Shelburne all the time because my family is 20 minutes away — I was just so utterly shocked, just absolutely shocked by how silenced these communities have been and quite frankly by the lack of media coverage. Of course, there are wonderful alternative media sources but, in regards to more mainstream sources, there has rarely been any coverage until now, when it’s been more in the forefront.
In many ways, Ingrid’s book is so absolutely groundbreaking for Nova Scotia and groundbreaking for Canada because it has revealed something to probably the majority of people in Nova Scotia: True, horrific, brutal atrocities when you think of what Shelburne has dealt with since the 1940s or when you think about all of the things that have happened in Boat Harbour since [the construction of a treatment plant there] in the 1960s, and the amount of time that the government did absolutely nothing and broke promises. [There is] an enormous amount of corruption and there’s just no no accountability. To learn about the degree of what has gone on in my province as I’ve been in all these spaces — and about my lack of knowledge, which is my responsibility to educate myself — yes, of course it has changed my view of the province.
You can read about something, you can research something, but needless to say, there’s nothing like being in these communities and yes, seeing the strength and the perseverance there but also hearing about the impacts of the pain and the trauma. For those of us who aren’t experiencing that, we really need to make ourselves aware, educate ourselves, and understand what has happened in these communities — and do what we can to create shifts in the world so this stops.
There’s Something in the Water premieres on Netflix on Friday, March 27.
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