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Kalamazoo, River: US offers up an eclectic mix of film genres and techniques exploring the toxic pollution of a small river in southwest Michigan. The Kalamazoo was described in the late 60s as “having the color and consistency of a blueberry milkshake.”  The movie is an exploration of both the relationship between a natural waterway and the city that took its name, and of the broader relationship between industry and nature.  This relationship has led to over a century’s worth of pollution and to the river’s current status as a U.S. EPA designated Superfund site.  After thirty years of inaction regarding the removal of toxic PCBs still remaining in eighty miles of river sediment, a decision on the preferred method of cleanup was supposed to be announced by the EPA over two years ago.  Will they ultimately rule to dredge and cap the removed sediment, or will the paper companies who dumped the waste prevail in their mission to leave the toxins in place, to let them “naturally attenuate?”  The in-depth exploration of these issues in one community will encourage other communities to examine their own connection with water.   Kalamazoo, River: US presents an opportunity for the river to tell its own story.

The movie will merge two branches of production technique.  One will consist of interviews and information presented in traditional documentary style, giving us insight into the people living here now or affected by the river’s past.  The other will tell the stories of the river and its connection to the city through comedic recreation and musical dramatization.  These creatively scripted and produced segments will magnify and explore various facets of the historical and political issues involved, using humor and music to approach sensitive subjects from our societies’ past behaviors.    At the height of the modern conflict, dueling narrators will face off in a comical musical debate over whether to clean the river’s polluted bed and try to solve the problem, or simply leave them alone and let nature try to solve our problems for us.