Carolina graduate brings ‘forever chemicals’ documentary to campus
Eli Yetter-Bowman, who worked on their film “GenX” for nearly a decade, will screen it at Carolina Jan. 14.
Eight years ago, Eli Yetter-Bowman was taking chemistry classes at Carolina when they came across an eye-opening article from their hometown newspaper. Reporter Vaughn Hagerty wrote in the Wilmington Star-News in 2017 that GenX — a commercial compound toxic to humans — was found in the local drinking water.
The story raised alarm bells for Yetter-Bowman, who immediately started asking their Carolina chemistry professors about the effects of a group of chemicals known as PFAS. PFAS is an abbreviation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, colloquially known as “forever chemicals” because some don’t degrade naturally.
Yetter-Bowman thought about their own mother, Leah Yetter, who was battling a severe autoimmune disorder that could have been caused by environmental contaminants like PFAS. Before long, Yetter-Bowman found themselves going down an investigative rabbit hole, learning more about PFAS and realizing there was much the public didn’t know.
“There was a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty, and I felt morally compelled to not just sit with this information but to share it,” Yetter-Bowman said. “I thought, ‘Perhaps there’s an opportunity here to take what I’ve learned in my scientific classes at Carolina and my previous background — which was in the performing arts — to try to synthesize storytelling with a scientific understanding.”
Now Yetter-Bowman ’18 is ready to bring what they learned back to Carolina. On Jan. 14, Yetter-Bowman will screen their documentary film “GenX” at the Genome Sciences Building at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The screening, which is open to the public and starts at 5:30 p.m., is a multidisciplinary effort with several campus sponsors. These include the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ chemistry and English and comparative literature departments, the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s environmental sciences and engineering department, the Center for the Study of the American South, the UNC Environmental Law Project and the UNC Institute for the Environment.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein will open the screening with a video address, and the keynote speaker of the event will be attorney Rob Bilott, who famously exposed decades-long chemical pollution in a landmark environmental court case. Actor Mark Ruffalo, who played Bilott in the 2019 film “Dark Waters,” is an executive producer on “GenX.”
Mark Ruffalo serves as an executive producer to “GenX” and even played attorney Rob Bilott in 2019’s “Dark Waters.” (Submitted photo, Graphic by University Creative)
“GenX” has been a labor of passion that took Yetter-Bowman nearly a decade to complete. After intending to study public health at Carolina and go on to medical school, Yetter-Bowman shifted gears to filmmaking, learning from experts like North Carolina-based producer Ray Ellis, another executive producer of the film. Yetter-Bowman’s partner and fellow Carolina alum, Sammy Bauer, is the documentary’s assistant director.
“I want this film to showcase to students at Carolina that there is so much opportunity and so much potential to make a big difference in utterly unexpected ways, even if it’s outside of the box,” Yetter-Bowman said. “The film shows some truly remarkable national activism that we were able to accomplish because of this work — things that I never would have expected to have a role in — that have helped millions of people.”
Screening the film at Carolina is a full-circle moment for the filmmaker, who said their UNC-Chapel Hill chemistry professors encouraged them when they first started digging into issues around PFAS. Yetter-Bowman said they want the screening to feel organic and inspirational for Carolina students, giving them opportunities to talk to the filmmakers, PFAS experts at Carolina and more.
“We want this event to be open to the interpretations of what resonates with the students in the audience,” Yetter-Bowman said. “Maybe there’s a calling that this evokes from them, that they go on to do incredible things with.
“I want this to be a film of empowerment that we as individuals can have a tremendous amount of strength and impact when we are passionate about something and when we have the support of our community.”
