"A complete revelation, a much richer and more tragic story than I had ever been aware of." Christopher H. Foreman, Jr., Director, Social Policy Program, University of Maryland

Now, almost 30 years after being designated for federal cleanup by the Superfund program, Tar Creek residents are still fighting for decontamination, environmental justice, and ultimately, the buyout and relocation of their homes to safer ground. As TAR CREEK reveals, America's Superfund sites aren't just environmental wastelands; they're community tragedies, too...until the community fights back.



Grade Level: 9-12, College, Adults
US Release Date: 2012     Copyright Date: 2011
DVD ISBN: 1-93777-202-0

Reviews "A powerful film showing a tragic situation for everyone who lives in the region...It is tragic that the non-Native residents of the town of Picher must leave their homes because of the failed efforts to clean up the site, but even more a case of environmental injustice that members of the Quapaw tribe, who were forcefully moved to this region from Arkansas a hundred years ago, must stay behind and continue to be exposed to lead." Dr. David Carpenter, Director, Institute for Health and the Environment, A Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization, University at Albany "I found Matt Myers' Tar Creek a complete revelation, a much richer and more tragic story than I had ever been aware of. Only a carefully organized visual presentation like his can vividly bring to life, for a general audience, the blend of science, economics, politics, history and raw human misery that are bound up in an environmental disaster of such scale. Students viewing it will certainly grasp both the extreme care required in the extraction of vital resources and the potentially devastating costs of carelessness." Christopher H. Foreman, Jr., Director and Professor, Social Policy Program, University of Maryland, Author, The Promise and Peril of Environmental Justice "Deeply moving and compelling. A tragic story of environmental degradation and community disintegration, layered on historical uprooting of Native Americans. The current health threats to children and the heart-breaking relocation and buy-out of families are contrasted against legislative and bureaucratic absurdities in this stunning documentary...Mining operations in this region of Oklahoma were both an environmental assault and a cultural assault. The film makers and those who were interviewed have done a tremendous service by presenting the many lessons to what I hope is a large audience." Dr. Richard Clapp, Epidemiologist, Professor Emeritus, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University "A moving film with a powerful message. Many of our basic industries may have provided us with solid benefits at one time but they have also left us with a hell of a toxic legacy. Our need for job creation will never be more important than our need for an ecologically sustainable economy. In fact, these two goals are inseparable and must always be so. Tar Creek confirms this lesson through a tragic story, but also points us in the right direction: We need to rethink our economy from the bottom up and ensure that we never compromise the health of our children and our environment for short-term financial and political goals." David Naguib Pellow, Professor of Sociology, University of Minnesota, Author, Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago, Power, Justice, and the Environment