Company Town
First Run Features • 1h 30m
Directed by Natalie Kottke-Masocco & Erica Sardarian • Documentary • 2017 • 90 minutes
Crossett, Arkansas is home to about 5,500 people, one Georgia-Pacific paper and chemical plant owned by the billionaire Koch brothers, and a startling rate of cancer and illness. This documentary follows local pastor David Bouie as he fights to save his community. It offers a rare look inside a small town ruled by a single company, where the government's environmental protections have been subverted and ignored, leaving its citizens to take on entrenched powers in a fight for justice.
The filmmaking team brings to light the bravery and collective action of Pastor Bouie, his congregation, and a variety of activists, organizers and environmental scientists—from Ouachita Riverkeeper Cheryl Slavant, who has been collecting health surveys and assisting scientists with air and water testing, to Barry Sulkin, Wilma Subra and Anthony Samsel, environmental scientists investigating pollution in the town's river.
"Powerful... A vital, eye-opening portrait. Georgia-Pacific and its owners, Koch Industries, are taken to the proverbial woodshed in the trenchant, disturbing documentary."—Los Angeles Times
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