Description:

If you travel down a one-mile stretch of Doremus Avenue in Newark, NJ, you pass a natural gas plant next to a sewage treatment facility next to an animal fat rendering plant next to a series of ominous looking chemical storage containers behind acres of fencing. Airplanes pass overhead every two minutes, their engines rattling windows, while a putrid smell wafts from the open pools at the sewage treatment plant. This stretch is known as Chemical Corridor, and it’s located just down the road from schools and apartment buildings. It borders the Ironbound neighborhood, where Portuguese, Brazilian, Central American and African American residents are separated from toxic substances by little more than a railroad track. The Ironbound district of Newark, New Jersey, is one of the most toxic neighborhoods in the country. Maria Lopez, a Honduran-American resident there, is waging a war for environmental justice. The Sacrifice Zone follows Maria as she leads a group of warriors who are fighting to break the cycle of poor communities of color serving as dumping grounds, so the rest of us can live in comfortable ignorance.

Biography:

Julie Winokur has been a storyteller for over two decades, first as a magazine writer and then as a documentary filmmaker. She launched Talking Eyes Media in 2002 as a way to focus on creating visual media that catalyzes positive social change. Her work has appeared on PBS (Aging in America, Firestorm), the Documentary Channel (Firestorm), MediaStorm, National Geographic Magazine and Discovery online, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and MSNBC.com. She has received two Emmy nominations and numerous awards from World Press, Pictures of the Year International and the Society for Professional Journalists. Beyond broadcast and publication, Winokur works extensively with nonprofit organizations to develop their messages and put Talking Eyes' films to work at the grassroots level. She has been on faculty at Rutgers University-Newark and the International Center of Photography in New York.