About the Event
Smells Like
Directed by Casey Beck
(US, 2022, 16 mins.)
Friday, February 24 | 7:00 PM
Presented by the Center for Environmental Studies and the Medical Humanities Program at Rice University. Screening followed by a discussion with Q&A.
Smells Like is the story of Juan Flores, the David fighting against the Goliath of Houston’s oil refineries, leading his community as they take matters into their own hands. Juan and his organization, Air Alliance Houston, are striving to protect people against pervasive air pollution, the source of innumerable ills. The offending companies dump hundreds of thousands of pounds of invisible carcinogens into the air as the government sits idly by. What regulations exist to protect the people, who are mostly communities of color and lower income folks, are side-stepped as companies pay minor fines and move on, continuing to emit toxins into the air as they rake in vast profits. Juan heads a campaign to install dozens of air quality monitors, gathering data to hold the polluters accountable. He knows it’s a race against time, but the next big catastrophe happens sooner than anyone anticipates. The fires and flares may smell like money to those managing the oil companies, far from the neighborhoods where hazardous smoke billows from the stacks that mar the landscape. But to the people of Galena Park and Pasadena, it Smells Like danger and trouble ahead. Followed by a discussion of the film.
Panelists
* Jim Morris (Public Health Watch founder)
* Casey Beck (filmmaker)
* Juan Flores (Air Alliance Houston)
* Patricia Gonzalez (community member, advocate)
* Dr. Latrice Babin (Harris County Pollution Control)
* Moderators: Melissa Bailar (Rice Medical Humanities) and Weston Twardowski (Rice Center for Environmental Studies)
Complementary parking for this event available at Founder’s Court (6:30 PM until 9:30 PM).
If there are any parking issues (such as being charged a fee) please contact the Rice Parking department at: 713-348-2024 or at parking@rice.edu.
