Two Local Showings Will Feature the Film Maker and Hannah Pingree, Former Speaker of the Maine House who Co-stars in the Film
PORTLAND and ROCKLAND, Maine – Maine's leadership phasing out unnecessary uses of toxic flame retardant chemicals features prominently in a new HBO documentary film Toxic Hot Seat. The film will receive its first two public screenings in Maine later this month in Portland and Rockland.
Toxic Hot Seat takes an in-depth look at the nexus of money, politics and power, following a courageous group of firefighters and mothers, journalists and scientists, politicians and activists as they fight to expose the dangers posed by toxic flame retardants in the furniture in our homes and the deceptive campaign waged by the chemical industry to stall efforts to eliminate unnecessary exposure to these harmful chemicals.
The Portland premier of the film will be at SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St, on Saturday, March 29th. Doors open at 7pm and the film begins at 7:30pm.
The following day, Sunday, March 30th Toxic Hot Seat will be shown at the Strand Theater, 345 Main St in Rockland at 2pm.
Admission to each showing is free. The film screenings will both be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Kirby Walker, Mike Belliveau the executive director of the Maine-based public health organization Environmental Health Strategy Center who led the successful campaigns to phase out toxic flame retardants in Maine, flame retardant free furniture designer and owner of Scarborough based Endicott Home Furnishings Ross Endicott, and former Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives Hannah Pingree who features prominently in the film. Dr. Susan Shaw, president of the Marine Environmental Research Institute who is conducting a study of levels of flame retardants in Maine fire fighters will join the Q&A in Portland and clinical research specialist Caroline Knight of Pen Bay Medical Center will participate in the Rockland Q&A.
More information about the screenings is available at www.preventharm.org or by calling Emily Postman at the Environmental Health Strategy Center at 207-699-5791. A trailer for the film is available at http://www.toxichotseatmovie.com.
The Maine screenings are presented by the Environmental Health Strategy Center and Prevent Harm with the support of the Pen Bay Healthcare Foundation, Endicott Home Furnishings, the Professional Fire Fighters of Maine, the Marine Environmental Research Institute, the Belfast Co-op, and the Camden International Film Festival.
