Toxic

The film TOXIC was shot between May and December 2019. It was screened at a variety of events and was a runner-up (“Considered”) for the top environmental film event TVE Global Sustainability Film Award 2020. It was also part of the official selection of the S.O.F.A. Film Festival.

It is not an anti-Brexit film in the sense that I assumed, while making the film, that Brexit would go ahead. The question is what to do to manage the consequences of this historical moment. And whether these consequences are something that people have genuinely voted for. And if they assumed the environment would be protected anyway, whether they are they being made aware of any (unintended?) consequences, as Brexit “gets done”. Clearly, this is far from being the case.

The film is deliberately raising issues that many observers may have overlooked, underestimated or simply been a bit quiet about: the huge implications that leaving the EU may have for UK environmental policy. As Brexit (which will actually be a long process taking years) goes ahead, these issues will need to be seriously monitored by civil society organisations.

Read more on toxic chemicals and the work being carried out by dr. A. Michael Warhurst and his colleagues at CHEMTrust, on this page on the charity’s website.  There is another page with information on how you can take action.

More information on the legal letter sent by CHEMTrust to the UK government can be found in this article.

Learn more about general corporate lobbying on environmental issues – which affects both the EU and the UK – from the website of Corporate Europe Observatory, which briefly appears in the film.

It is important for transparency to disclose that Michael and I have been married for many years. I chose this topic because I care about it and because as a student film maker (this was made while enrolled on two City Lit film making courses) I chose to tell a story about a person and topic that is easily accessible to me. However, I have made this film entirely independently and with no financial support from CHEMTrust.