"Libby, Montana" Cautionary Tale of Environmental Disaster

Janson Media today announced the release to worlwide television markets of LIBBY, MONTANA, a new documentary feature from High Plains Films. With a true story that unfolds like a Hollywood thriller, LIBBY, MONTANA chronicles what the EPA calls the worst case of community-wide exposure to a toxic substance in U.S. history. For more than 30 years, multi-national corporation W.R. Grace employed residents of the bucolic mountain town of Libby, Montana to mine and process vermiculite. Used widely in products from home insulation to potting soil, what W.R. Grace and government officials knew — but failed to reveal to its workers or the citizens of Libby — was that the vermiculite dust, which coated nearly everything in the town as a result of the industry, contained a particularly lethal form of asbestos. Nearly 1500 of Libby"s 4500 residents have been diagnosed with some form of asbestos-related lung disease, and the U.S. Public Health Service estimates that approximately one-third of the population has some type of lung abnormality. Asbestos exposure may still be occurring throughout the town - in homes, schools, playgrounds, and yards. LIBBY, MONTANA is a journey into a hard-working, blue-collar community that personifies the American Dream gone horribly wrong. The film was produced, directed, shot and edited by Drury Gunn Carr and Doug Hawes-Davis of Montana-based High Plains Films. The film was selected as a Finalist at the 26th Independent Feature Project Market in New York, and at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, and has been an Official Selection at numerous film festivals. The film has already garnered rave reviews from its many festival appearances. Willamette Week called it &'emotionally powerful. Intense.&' The Missoulian called it &'emotionally gut-wrenching.&' The Illinois Times said the film &'definitely deserves Oscar consideration.&' Mother Jones Magazine called it &'Incisive and unrelenting.&' The San Antonio Current said this about the film: &'If the political pressure to prosecute Grace"s executives to the full extent of the law persists, it will be due in part to this deeply moving film. Many critics have praised the &'objectivity&' of filmmakers Doug Hawes-Davis and Drury Gunn Carr; what they mean is that the directors let the headlines, residents, and Lovick tell the story. This time-tested documentary technique seems fresh in the wake of last year"s much-more-publicized and vocally political Fahrenheit 9/11, but at its root is the recognition that Libby, Montana isn"t a red-state or blue-state story. It is a story about American democracy and American capitalism, and the battle that must constantly be waged to keep the latter from consuming the former.&' LIBBY, MONTANA is now available to television markets worldwide exclusively from Janson Media.