It began as a personal quest by Eli, raised on the Cape Fear River whose decades of contamination, revealed in a 2017 news story, spurred an investigation that spanned 8 years. GenX is a story about revealing truth, facing chronic illness, confronting deception, and the power of community solidarity.
GenX began when Eli, a premedical student, discovered that their hometown’s drinking water had been poisoned for decades. Driven by a personal mission to find answers for their mother’s incurable disease, Eli believed a real solution must be possible. But researching this immense contamination back home led to even deeper questions: How could this happen? What was it doing to people? And how do we stop it? What started as a quest to expose North Carolina’s pollution problem quickly grew into a global investigation, thanks in part to the groundbreaking work of attorney Rob Bilott and the relentless efforts of activists across the world. Eli realized that the true solutions to help Wilmington required breaking the global cycle of forever chemical contamination. For over eight years, Eli and the team have worked to uncover the full scope of this global public health crisis and share it with the world. As a spiritual successor to the film Dark Waters, and with the support of our producer, Mark Ruffalo, GenX delivers a powerful call to action: This story not only highlights the urgency and scale of the PFAS contamination problem but also shines a hopeful spotlight on how communities are fighting back against the corporate giants responsible.
