‘Out of Plain Sight’ Premieres at SBIFF, Detailing DDT Dumping in Pacific

New ‘L.A. Times’ Documentary Focuses on UCSB Professor Who Discovered Toxic Dumping Grounds off Coast of Southern California

UCSB Professor and Researcher Dave Valentine (standing, center) poses with his students who worked with him to sample the dump sites (standing), and (L-R, crouching) filmmakers Austin Straub, Daniel Straub, and Rosanna Xia. | Credit: Courtesy

When UC Santa Barbara professor and researcher David Valentine went out on an ocean expedition in 2011, he didn’t expect to find mysterious barrels full of toxic waste on the sea floor. Nor did he expect to uncover a surprisingly not-so-secret history of chemical dumping off the coast of Southern California, including tons of DDT — the toxic pesticide banned in the U.S. in 1972.

L.A. Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize- inalist Rosanna Xia was full of gratitude and pride for the “very special” film they created. | Credit: Callie Fausey

He also didn’t expect that one day, it would make him a movie star. Valentine and his discoveries are the central storyline in a new Los Angeles Times documentary, Out of Plain Sight, which premiered on the West Coast at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) over the weekend.

“It’s kind of a crazy feeling; I get to see something I’ve been working on for 14 years be put together by talented people in an immersive, visual way,” Valentine said.

The film — directed and produced by L.A. Times journalist Rosanna Xia with filmmakers Austin and Daniel Straub— premiered to a sold-out crowd at the SBIFF Film Center on its opening night at the film festival.

It begins with a quote from biologist Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, documenting the environmental catastrophe created by DDT: “The obligation to endure gives us the right to know.”

The film follows Pulitzer Prize finalist Rosanna Xia as she reports on Valentine’s first harrowing discovery, and the even more harrowing discoveries that followed. The problem only gets bigger, from connecting the DDT contamination to a lethal cancer in sea lions to discovering that the toxic chemicals were dumped straight into the ocean to realizing that what was likely contained in those eerie-looking, sunken barrels was straight-up radioactive waste.

That, and connecting the dots to reveal that this kind of ocean dumping was a legal waste disposal method for decades, as documented by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Xia poses this question in the documentary: “Was this a secret history, or a forgotten history?”

Well, it was forgotten, because, as Valentine says multiple times in the film, “Out of sight, out of mind.”

But the consequences of this history are right in front of us. One of the hardest-to-watch moments of the film is when an incredibly sick sea lion is euthanized, which is often the most humane option for sea lions suffering from DDT-related cancers.

However, there is beauty in the film too, including amazing cinematography and an original score composed by James Ellington.

Director and producer Rosanna Xia, director and producer Daniel Straub, and cinematographer Austin Straub answered questions after the film screening. | Credit: Callie Fausey

After the screening, UCSB researcher Dave Valentine was asked to stand up for recognition of his essential role in the film. | Credit: Callie Fausey

“There is still a lot of work to do,” to address DDT pollution, Valentine told the audience at the Historical Museum. | Credit: Callie Fausey

“People have been listening to me talk about this for so long; I hope people were excited to see it,” Valentine said with a laugh, referring to his colleagues at UCSB. Based on the repeated rounds of applause that erupted from the audience as the credits rolled, it’s safe to say that they enjoyed it.

Xia and the Straubs held a Q&A after the film. In response to a question about any updates on the issue, Xia laughed and joked, “Well, we have a new president who loves the Environmental Protection Agency.” However, she quickly emphasized that this is not a political problem; the movie recounts how it was Republican president Richard Nixon who created the EPA in the first place.

Valentine agrees, and noted that “DDT isn’t a partisan issue. Nobody is pro-pollution.” However, he added, navigating the new administration will be a challenge, especially with an anti-California sentiment coming out of D.C.

But still, he’s been busy. In the past few years, federal and state grants have poured in to support research on the legacy of toxic ocean dumping. Valentine is still building off the threads of his original project and trying to generate a series of maps showing the overall scope of contamination. As noted by Xia, despite uncovering a dump site bigger than the City of San Francisco, they still have not determined any clear boundaries to the dumping.

“We know we have a problem, but how widespread is it?” Valentine posed. “That’s where we’re at now — getting that scope, while looking at the chemistry in those samples, and trying to understand the rate at which degradation is happening by microbes, or how long it takes to go through the environment.”

He said they are also sourcing and sequencing DNA, which is like “putting Humpty Dumpty back together again,” and looking at other concentrations that might be even worse than DDT.

UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang called the film “exceptional.” | Credit: Callie Fausey

But as scary as that is, for now, the film is a great tool to at least alert the public to the ongoing story.

The screening was followed by a reception at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. Many of the scientists in the film were in attendance, as well as L.A. Times executives, Valentine’s students, and UCSB Chancellor Henry Yang.

“You had the choice between us and Kevin Costner, and I’m glad you chose us,” Valentine joked to the audience, as Costner’s new film, Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 2, was premiering the same night at the Arlington Theatre. He praised Xia and the cinematographers, saying they took on “exceptionally hard work” to bring a human lens to the story.

He noted that “we’re all in this together” when it comes to addressing such a big problem, with a lot of work still to be done and a need for resources to complete it.

Xia returned the love, saying Valentine is not only the best at “professor dad jokes,” but also calling him a “hometown hero.” She said a lot of tears have been shed over the project, but they made something very special.

“Thank you for not giving up when no one else seemed to listen,” she added. “Thanks for helping us prove to Hollywood that a film about science can be entertaining.”