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Dark Waters (2019, Haynes) and movie discussion with Claus Leggewie

26.09.23 - "Dark Waters" OmU (2019, Haynes) and movie talk

 

in cooperation with Kinocenter Gießen

 

*The screening is in english with subtitles, the discussion will be held in german*

Ticket: 8,50€, purchase through Kinocenter Gießen and at the box office

 

Time Place Participation
7 pm c.t.

Kinocenter Gießen

Bahnhofstraße 34, 35390 Gießen

ticket sale via Kinocenter Gießen

Movie

Cincinnati, Ohio 1998: Up-and-coming corporate attorney Robert Bilott, a new partner at a prestigious law firm, is visited by one of his grandmother's neighbors from West Virginia. Angry farmer Wilbur O. Tennant asks him to sue chemical multinational DuPont. His cows, according to the accusation, are being poisoned by a nearby landfill. Such a mandate is actually out of the question for Bilott, because he normally represents corporations. When he drives to remote Parkersburg to see for himself, his mind changes abruptly. The lawyer sees shocking evidence of the poisoning of the cattle with his own eyes: black teeth, huge tumors and terrible deformities. With the backing of his law firm boss Tom Terp, he files a lawsuit and gains access to confidential company files. While DuPont routinely plays for time, Bilott uncovers a scandal that is also endangering the health of many people. Much to his wife's chagrin, the idealistic lawyer gets stuck in the case, putting his career and health at risk. And yet he doesn't give up.

 

Movie Discussion

Claus Leggewie

Claus Leggewie is holder of the Ludwig Börne professorship and director of the “Panel on Planetary Thinking” at Giessen University. Focusing on the French ecological movement, his first book on political ecology dates back to 1978. He wrote numerous publications on planet-society interrelations ever since, ranging from energy transition to climate politics to the Anthropocene. He currently is co-editor of the book series "Climate & Cultures" (Brill) and the "Routledge Global Cooperation Series" (Routledge). Earlier affiliations include visiting professorships at the University of Paris-Nanterre and New York University (Max Weber Chair). He was also a fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, the Remarque Institute at New York University, and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. From 2007 to 2015, Leggewie acted as the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) in Essen where he established the research area Climate and Cultures as a first of its kind in Germany, and founded the Center for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/ GCR21) in Duisburg. From 2008 to 2016, he was a member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). In fall 2021 he will be Honorary Fellow at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles. Claus Leggewie received several awards throughout his academic career, including the Volkmar and Margret Sander-Prize (New York University) in 2016. He regularly publishes in newspapers and magazines, including Le Monde diplomatique, The New York Review of Books, Los Angeles Review of Books and Rolling Stone.