The Canary Report

Film: Submission

Posted on Apr 22, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Media/Videos, Susie Collins

SUBMISSION: In defence of the unborn. A film by Stefan Jarl.

This documentary film, a rebuke on the chemical industry, will have its premier in Sweden on April 23, and in Denmark on May 5.

A documentary by Stefan Jarl featuring Eva Röse and 23 professors.

Thirty years ago I began shooting a documentary, which came to be called Nature’s Revenge (Naturens hämnd). It was about how humans manipulate nature and how nature strikes back. Since that day I have been continuously collecting material for a new film on the same theme; however, much more than a “Nature’s Revenge, part 2”.

Submission is a documentary about the ‘chemical society’ – the society we have been building since the Second World War. Back then, humans used 1 million tonnes of chemicals per year; the figure today is 500 million tonnes. The chemical industry is the fastest-growing industry in the world. The film is about the 100,000 chemicals we use every day, what they’re used for and what they do to us and our health. And I don’t mean food additives – I’m talking about chemicals we are exposed to in our daily environments: softeners (phthalates), flame retardants (PBDE), surfactants (PFOS, PFOA) and so on.

Professor Åke Bergman at Stockholm University is my guide throughout the film, analysing the chemicals in my blood and explaining what they are. It turns out I’m carrying several hundred foreign chemicals. I can’t hide my shock.

After discovering the huge number of chemicals in my blood, I turn to my friend Eva Röse and ask if she would like to test her blood as well. She’s 35 years younger than me; surely she couldn’t have picked up as many chemicals as I have? Eva is pregnant at the time and has her baby while the film is being made.

Consulting a wide range of scientists from the United States, the UK, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Finland, Denmark and Sweden, I seek answers: What problems can these chemicals cause? These are some of the world’s foremost experts, and they explain what we currently know about effects and risks, the cocktail effect, hormone disruptors and the vulnerability of unborn children.

As I considered the format for my film, I thought of Claude Lanzmann’s documentary Shoah, which is based solely on interviews. I decided to put my faith in the close-up, the candid testimony of the human face. Rather than travelling to developing nations and bringing home terrifying images, I chose a different path.

But why the title, Submission?

Over the years I have grown to realise how willing we humans are to submit to others’ terms. It’s a holdover from our earliest childhood. And commercial interests in society are quick to make use of it. This interests me from a philosophical viewpoint. Just as Nature’s Revenge showed that Mother Nature doesn’t take kindly to manipulation and strikes back at us, I now understand that humankind is prepared to submit to whatever consequences our manipulations of nature throw our way.

The American musician Adam Wiltzie from the band Stars of the Lid made the music. He calls the film “a horror movie for the 21st century”.

I am aware that this popular science essay film asks a lot of the audience, but like most of my other documentaries, Submission is, at the core, about what kind of society we want to live in.

This is the most important film I’ve ever made. Ever.

Stefan Jarl

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Tags: Chemicals, Children's Health, Environment, Environmental Illness, Indoor Pollution, Pollution, Research, Toxic, Video