If the cameras weren’t there to capture the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, we might not believe it. Nevertheless, Anthony Baxter’s film could ask more questions than it does
It takes the Loren family – Tammy, Ken and their two sons – about four hours to shower. First, they have to empty bottles of water into pans, heat the water, then transfer it to the bathroom where a pump attached to a handheld sprinkler head can be pumped by the foot of the hopeful ablutioner until water begins to trickle out.
How lucky we are to live in the developed world, you might think. And that is true – as long as you don’t live in Flint, Michigan, as the Lorens do. The 8,000 or so people in the once prosperous car-manufacturing town have been without clean, safe water since 2014. That was when their state, under the leadership of the governor Rick Snyder, decided to switch the water supply from nearby Lake Huron to the local river in order to save money. Anthony Baxter’s documentary film Flint (BBC Scotland/BBC iPlayer), which has been five years in the making, tells the story of what happened next.
