CMEDIA: Directed, produced, and screen-written by Jennifer Baichwal, and co-produced by Nicholas de Pencier, the film “Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company” was world premiered as an opening night film at TIFF Bell LightBox on April 28.
The film follows the story of groundskeeper Lee Johnson and his fight for justice against agrichemical giant Monsanto (now Bayer, which bought the company in 2018), the manufacturer of the weed killer, Roundup.
In 2015, glyphosate – the active ingredient in Roundup was classified – as “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization. Only a year later a lawsuit was filed by Lee claiming that Ranger Pro, a commercial-grade variant of Roundup, was a substantial contributing factor in causing his NonHodgkin’s lymphoma.
Lee, a Bay Area groundskeeper, suffered from rashes in 2014 and wondered if they were caused by a glyphosate-based herbicide labeled Roundup he’d been using for the past couple of years.
The allegedly misleading labeling Roundup had been a signature product for the multinational agrochemical corporation for over four decades and is being sold to more than 130 nations. Scientists’ concerns about its environmental impact and carcinogenic properties had been subdued by the money-making corporation’s lawyers, lobbyists, and marketers by deflecting numerous studies. Renowned director Baichwal follows Johnson through his battle, setting his personal journey against a global environmental crisis.
The whole film was unveiled by Jenifer by blending interviews, trial footage, news coverage, and the groundbreaking trial progresses, while also anchoring on the understanding of both ubiquity of use and its global repercussions.
By Unfolding an extensive history of the company’s influence over and manipulation of the very agencies, Baichwal has successfully aimed to regulate the company’s unfounded attacks on independent science and scientists.
By focusing on the film’s anchor not only on Lee’s struggle and his fight for justice in the face of a terminal
illness but also on his philosophy, Baichwal has been successful in addressing the wide-ranging ecological effects. By telling Johnson’s story, Baichwal unfolds how David vs. Goliath fight is capable of instigating lasting and substantial change.
#Toronto#IntoTheWeeds; #HotDocs; #JenniferBaichwal; #LeeJohnson
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
