The People vs. Agent Orange

Special screening presented by the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club. 

The Agent Orange catastrophe did not end with the Vietnam War. Today, the world over, a primary chemical of the notorious defoliant controls weeds in farming, forestry, parks, along railbeds and roadways, and even in children’s playgrounds. The herbicide can wreak havoc on the human genome, causing deformities and deadly cancers. 

After decades of struggle and tragic personal losses, two heroic women are leading a worldwide movement that has raised awareness of the plague being caused by Agent Orange and the herbicides that have evolved from it. Their shared goal is to hold the chemical manufacturers accountable. For seven years, Tran To Nga pressed a lawsuit in a French court against the American chemical industry for poisoning her and her children during the war in Vietnam. 

In America, Carol Van Strum spent several decades collecting a huge trove of internal corporate documents exposing the knowing production of toxic herbicides and its use among civilian populations. 

Incriminating documents disappear. Activists are threatened. A helicopter technician secretly films the contamination of reservoirs. After half a century of denials and obfuscation, a massive industry-wide cover-up continues.