For Immediate Release

June 1, 2004

Libby, Montana, the new documentary from High Plains Films, chronicles the story behind one of the greatest environmental and human health catastrophes in U.S. history

Information, still images, 2-minute trailer, poster art and more are available at: http://www.highplainsfilms.org/fp_libby.html

Advance DVD and VHS copies are available for review by the press, exhibitors and distributors.

Contact: High Plains Films (406) 541-3456 or <yak@highplainsfilms.org>
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What reviewers are saying about Libby, Montana ­

"Emotionally gut-wrenching...To call this film a sprawling and ambitious documentary is an understatement. One can hardly avoid feeling like 2 1/2 hours isn¹t long enough to devote to these people who gave their lives to the company mine, only to be left to die in pain." Missoulian

"The film blends the current debate with compelling archival footage during the mining heyday. Libby residents find themselves beleaguered by medical and economic questions in the wake of the mine shutdown and the bankruptcy proceedings of the former owners (as they try to dodge legal liability and the massive cleanup costs). Abandoned by their former employer, residents are divided over where to lay blame - on greedy company officers, or on government officials charged with regulating mining to ensure the public health and safety in Libby and in the 30 states and six countries where products were shipped." Real Screen

"Carr and Hawes-Davis have never shied away from eliciting strong emotional responses, but this film reaches a new level. It is blunt and painful...its depth and pace, as well as the fantastic archival footage, give it gravitas." High Country News

"Excellent...the film accurately tells the tale of Libby with an introduction that mixes the home movies of local families with industry fluff pieces about mining and logging in northwest Montana. That eventually segues into the asbestos story. Overall, it paints a picture of Libby as a loving, caring family town where something went amiss." The Western News
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For the past three years, the Bush administration has worked relentlessly to cut funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). President Bush believes that corporations function best under the creed of self-governance -- that rules and limitations hinder economic growth and prosperity. The people of the small town of Libby, Montana - a Bush stronghold - might take exception to this idea.

The EPA calls Libby the worst case of community-wide exposure to a toxic substance in U.S. history. Catalyst for the story is the W.R. Grace Corporation, the company that also brought us the toxic tale of Woburn, Massachusetts, inspiration for the John Travolta movie, A Civil Action. Ronald Reagan, the Bush Administration, the E.P.A., Montana politicians, and the small community of Libby all play supporting roles in this American tragedy.

Nearly 1500 people in Libby, hometown to Marc Racicot, head of President Bush's re-election campaign, have been diagnosed with some form of asbestos-related lung disease, and the U.S. Public Health Service estimates that approximately one third of the population has some type of lung abnormality. Asbestos exposure may still be occurring throughout the town ­ in homes, schools, playgrounds, and yards.

In the heavily forested northwest corner of Montana lies the small town of Libby. For decades the community survived on a largely natural resource-based economy, with logging and mining the two major industries. With the rugged Cabinet Mountains Wilderness nearby and the Kootenai River flowing through town, outdoor recreation has always played an important social and economic role as well.

In the 1920's, the Zonolite Company began mining and processing vermiculite, a material found in insulation and commercial potting soil around the world. Zonolite and its parent company W. R. Grace were seemingly a perfect match for Libby -- a town where unemployment is high and logging jobs are seasonal. But even from the beginning workers at the vermiculite mine complained about the dust floating in the air and engulfing the downtown. For decades, workers brought dust-laden clothes home to their families. But what workers and townspeople were never told, and what W. R. Grace and government officials knew but never revealed, was that the dust contained a particularly lethal form of asbestos, found as a contaminant in the vermiculite.

Libby, Montana is a journey into the world of a hard-working, blue-collar community that exemplifies the American Dream gone horribly wrong. The film is the fourth feature-length project from Montana-based High Plains Films. It was directed, produced, shot and edited by Drury Gunn Carr and Doug Hawes-Davis and features an original score from Alabama musician Ned Mudd. Emotions fly and solutions are hard to find in this disturbing, yet strangely humorous true drama. The film, which Mother Jones calls "incisive and unrelenting," will soon be released to theatrical, broadcast and educational markets.

When the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported news of possible large-scale asbestos contamination in Libby in 1999, Carr and Hawes-Davis began thinking of a film about the town. By early 2001, the story had grown to include a full-scale emergency cleanup by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In April 2001, Carr and Hawes-Davis arrived in Libby for the first time. What they found was a town in social and political turmoil. "What I envisioned was spending a few weeks in Libby filming, doing interviews and going to some meetings, then edit for a few months, and be done with the film in about a year. But once we got there, all of that went out the window. We realized story of Libby, Montana was just starting to unfold," recalls Carr.

The filmmakers spent the next two and a half years filming, documenting the local efforts to uncover the extent of the exposure and the difficulties in cleaning up the town. As more and more people were diagnosed with asbestos-related disease W.R. Grace, the company responsible for the contamination, declared bankruptcy and began dropping asbestos victims from the one and only medical plan. Libby citizens often found themselves at odds with their own friends and neighbors on how to best deal with the crisis. Some prominent town residents claimed the issue was blown out of proportion by a zealous few, including the young, charismatic federal bureaucrat in charge of cleanup.

"As we began to peel away the layers of a very complex situation, we realized that the federal officials who came to Libby to try to resolve this problem were an integral component of the evolving story. These heroic people were putting their careers on the line in order to fight for the cleanup in Libby," said Hawes-Davis. "Federal EPA funding was being cut each year, and it began to take a toll on the Libby asbestos victims and the EPA staff. The internal government struggle over clean-up priorities became almost as important as the stories of asbestos victims."

While the filmmakers continued to document the history of the town and the clean-up efforts of the federal government, the story grew beyond Libby as Congressional leaders in Washington, DC, began debating what to do about the millions of homes and businesses in the U. S. that still contain vermiculite from Libby.