Orange Witness

Almost four decades have passed since the end of the Vietnam War, but the legacy of Agent Orange lives on. In Andrew Nisker's hard-hitting documentary, voiceover speakers from four different countries discuss the deadly herbicide's origins and effects, backed by an ambient score and stock footage of the trucks and planes that served as delivery devices. As scientific experts explain, two herbicides were combined to create the “super poison” known as Agent Orange, which contained dioxin, a toxin about which—according to retired forestry worker Don Romanowich—little information was available at the time. Just as the U.S. military used toxic chemicals for strategic purposes in Southeast Asia, some of these same substances were employed in Canada and New Zealand for agricultural reasons, such as weed extermination. Ton Nu Thi Ninh (former co-chair, U.S.-Vietnam Group on Agent Orange) notes that Vietnamese citizens experienced longer-term exposure than American soldiers, so they suffered more extreme outcomes as trees died, water became contaminated, and the rate of birth defects and cancer (mostly in women) increased. In Canada, animals would graze and children would play in affected parks and forests, and Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk believes that dioxin has led to an increase in diabetes. Andrew Gordon says that New Zealand used dioxin extensively in the 1950s and 1960s until the dangers came to light. And in Oregon, during the 1970s, author Carol Van Strum (A Bitter Fog) remembers dead and deformed fowl materializing in the wake of coastal spraying. Other speakers cite a rise in miscarriages and stillbirths. Although many of these examples are anecdotal, the overwhelming number leaves a strong impression, and the first-person testimony brings the horror home in a way that simple facts and figures cannot. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)