Mann v. Ford (DVD)

This feature documentary follows members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe in Ringwood, NJ, in their five-year search for justice through a mass-action, tort lawsuit. From the middle 50s to the late 70s, the Ford Motor Company operated an assembly plant in Mahwah, NJ that produced millions of classic American cars. The waste from this plant, including thousands of tons of toxic lead-based paint sludge, was trucked to Ringwood and dumped into abandoned mine shafts and throughout the woods surrounding the Ramapoughs homes. The working-class residents of the area have suffered from a range of ailments, including skin problems, bleeding disorders and increased rates of cancer and miscarriage, ever since. The EPA placed Ringwood on the Federal Superfund Priorities list in the 1970s and the site was officially cleaned-up and taken off the list in the 1990s. But the toxins remained. After years of community effort, the EPA admitted it had missed nearly 80 percent of the toxins" and returned the Ramapoughs homeland to the Superfund list (the first time this has ever happened). This film charts the communitys epic battle to secure a healthy future for their children through a major lawsuit against one of the most powerful corporations in America, the Ford Motor Company, and our flawed environmental guardians at the EPA.

• documentary
• drama