Grit / Film School Radio interview with Co-director Cynthia Wade (Sasha Friedlander

The gripping documentary GRIT recounts the fateful day when Dian, a 6 years old Indonesian girl, heard a deep rumble and turned to see a tsunami of mud barreling towards her village. She remembers her mother scooping her up to save her from the boiling mud. Her neighbors ran for their lives. Sixteen villages, including Dian’s, were wiped away. A decade later, nearly 60,000 people have been displaced from what was once a thriving industrial and residential area in East Java, located just 20 kilometers from Indonesia’s second largest city. Dozens of factories, schools and mosques are submerged 60 feet under a moonscape of cracked mud. The majority of international scientists believe that Lapindo, a multinational company that was drilling for natural gas in 2006, accidentally struck an underground mud volcano and unleashed a violent flow of hot sludge from the earth's depths. Ten years later, despite initial assurances to do so, Lapindo has not provided 80% of its promised reparations to the hundreds of victims of who lost everything in the mud explosion. While the survivors live in the shadow of the mudflow and wait for restitution, they live in makeshift rented homes next to levees that hold back the still flowing mud. Dian is determined to rise out of the muddy life. She and her mother, along with many neighbors, fight against the corporate powers accused of one of the largest environmental disasters in recent history. GRIT bears witness to Dian’s transformation into a politically active teenager as she questions the role of corporate power and money in the institution of democracy itself. Co-director Cynthia Wade (Sasha Friedlander) talks about the challenges of the 6 plus year journey into the world of poor Indonesian villagers struggling for justice in a country racked with corruption and antipathy. For news, screenings and updates go to: gritdocumentary.com/ For more on co-director Cynthi Wade go to: cynthiawade.com Grit is screening on PBS documentary film series POV on Monday September 9 Social Media: facebook.com/gritdocumentary twitter.com/GritDocumentary