Matinee

Series/Themes: Black Excellence, Environmental Film Series

Genre: Documentaries

Film Year: 2022

Locations: USA

Film Length: 85 min.

Languages: English

Director: Shawn Bannon

Featuring: Elsie Herring, Don Webb, Susan Webb, René Miller, Mona Lisa Wallace, Naeema Muhammad, Cory Booker

The overwhelming stench of pork products is infiltrating the air of eastern North Carolina. The Smell of Money follows Elsie Herring and other locals who live near the state’s giant pig factories. When a large hog farm overtakes the land purchased by Elsie’s grandfather, Elsie, a newly freed slave, vows to fight back. What began as a battle to safeguard her family’s home and heritage becomes a fight against a large conglomerate and its deadly pollutant. Teaming up with a savvy local lawyer, Elsie and the other local residents enter into a nine-year court bin, a place free of pollution. The documentary reveals how and why animal waste is killing innocent people and the insidious effects of environmental racism, corporate greed, and global warming.

Introduction by Price Thomas (United Way of Greater Charlottesville) 

This film is part of the Environmental Film Series presented by Southern Environmental Law Center.