NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Eight years in the making, a Wilmington native is releasing a documentary on the GenX contamination crisis and the fight for accountability.
READ MORE: The local flair of Cucalorus: 7 films highlight Wilmington, UNCW talent
ALSO: Council considers resolution against Chemours, as testing reveals unregulated PFAS in river
Documentary “GenX: The Saga of Forever Chemicals,” directed by Wilmingtonian Elijah Yetter-Bowman and produced by well-known actor and environmental activist Mark Ruffalo, takes a comprehensive look at the contamination that has plagued the Cape Fear region for decades. GenX is one of many “forever chemicals” now broadly categorized as PFAS.
The crisis first gained national attention in 2017 when reporting from the Wilmington StarNews revealed Chemours Fayetteville Works plant had been discharging toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS into the Cape Fear River since the 1980s. The contamination impacted the primary drinking water source for more than 250,000 residents, leading to legal battles and the installation of a $43-million granular activated carbon filtration system by the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.
Seeking to hold polluters accountable, CFPUA and New Hanover, Brunswick, and Pender counties filed lawsuits against Chemours in 2017 to recover remediation costs. A trial date to determine if Chemours is financially liable for filtration systems and cleanup is expected to be set in 2026.
Yetter-Bowman and the team at Ethereal Films have been following the story as it transformed from a local news break into a deep dive on a global issue. The feature-length documentary delves into the far-reaching impact — from the epicenter in Wilmington to PFAS-polluted locations around the world. It features interviews with whistleblowers, environmental experts, toxicologists, and community voices whose lives have been upended by the water contamination.
Yetter-Bowman said they didn’t necessarily sign up for the project to last as long as it has, however.
“I thought this would be easy,” Yetter-Bowman said, who planned on attending med school when the GenX story first broke. “I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll just delay for a year or two. How long could this take?’ Now here we are, eight years later.”
The eight-year timeline was driven by the shifting complexity of drinking-water pollution. The story had to expand from GenX to include thousands of other chemical compounds, as filmmakers navigated what Yetter-Bowman described as “intentional misinformation” from manufacturers designed to obscure the issue.
A defining moment in the film’s production, Yetter-Bowman and crew attended a 2017 town hall hosted by Chemours in Wilmington shortly after contamination was first revealed in the Cape Fear. The team witnessed what they called failed attempts of misinformation by company representatives using technical language and withholding information on GenX discharge volumes and chemical composition.
The manufacturer was later forced to disclose these details after a 2019 consent order between the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, advocate group Cape Fear River Watch, and Chemours was issued by a Bladen County Superior Court judge who found the company had violated water quality laws for decades. Yetter-Bowman said the filmmakers felt a “supreme sense of obligation” to continue working on the project.
“Their playbook for decades has been steering the narrative through either intentional misinformation or an over-reliance on jargon to attempt to bore or confuse,” Yetter-Bowman said.
Yetter-Bowman brings a unique background to the project, with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The specific scientific training was important to navigating sometimes complicated nomenclature.
“Overall, the issue is really simple … We know who did it, we know who should pay for it, and we know who should clean it up,” Yetter-Bowman said.
Eight years on, they noted federal PFAS regulations remain largely stagnant. The film touches on the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency, pointing to an EPA with a “non-existent track record of true enforcement.” While the federal agency has established enforceable limits for six PFAS compounds including PFOA, North Carolina’s General Assembly has yet to codify regulations into state law
Earlier this year, New Hanover County Rep. Ted Davis spearheaded House Bill 569, known as the polluter pays act, which would have mandated chemical manufacturers like Chemours to reimburse public water utilities for the millions spent on PFAS filtration technology. The bill passed the House, but ultimately stalled in the Senate.
Yetter-Bowman and assistant director Sammy Bauer saw their project shift from a traditional documentary into a form of “accidental activism.” The Ethereal Films team moved beyond the camera to participate in strides for change, helping elevate the issue through film screenings of their 2023 documentary “Burned: Protecting the Protectors” and panel appearances at the Boston State House and universities across the country.
While continuing to work on the GenX documentary, Yetter-Bowman also started filming “Burned,” as the team learned of high concentrations of PFAS within firefighter gear. Recognizing the danger it could pose to first responders, Yetter-Bowman partnered with the International Association of Fire Fighters and Ruffalo to release the 2023 documentary short.
Since 2024 many states have begun enacting laws banning the PFAS gear, though North Carolina is not one of them. While a state-level ban was pitched in the General Assembly in 2023 via House Bill 732, it died in the House Rules Committee. However, New Hanover County Fire Rescue made the switch to PFAS-free gear in 2024, with the Wilmington Fire Department following suit shortly after.
The collaboration on “Burned” led to Ruffalo joining the GenX project as a producer. An ally to the Cape Fear region, Ruffalo visited Wilmington in 2020 for a screening of “Dark Waters” at Thalian Hall, meeting with local activists and community members.
Starring Ruffalo, “Dark Waters” dramatized the landmark legal battle over manufacturer DuPont’s PFOA contamination in Parkersburg, West Virginia — a case famously brought to light after nearly 200 cattle died on a local farm from drinking contaminated water. Chemours, behind PFAS pollution in the Cape Fear River, is also a subsidiary of DuPont, which operated the chemical plant in Fayetteville for years before splitting its performance chemicals division into Chemours in 2015.
A long-time advocate for water quality and environmental justice, Ruffalo co-founded the nonprofit Water Defense in 2011 to empower citizens to monitor their own water supplies and hold polluters accountable. Yetter-Bowman noted Ruffalo’s interest was far from a celebrity vanity project.
“He really believed that it was an essential topic,” Yetter-Bowman said, recalling their interview with Ruffalo in the film. “He’s played an important role in helping bring certain attention, but really, he is just one person trying to do his best. It’s going to take a village, it’s going to take a lot of people to get the support to make this happen.”
On that front, Yetter-Bowman said one of the goals of the film is to stop production at the source by ending demand for all PFAS compounds, commonly used in the manufacturing of Teflon and other non-stick coatings. For instance, GenX was originally marketed by chemical companies as a safer alternative to older compounds like PFOA — a chemical phased out of production by 2015 after being linked to health issues such as kidney cancer, now designated as a hazardous substance by the EPA.
“If there’s no market pressure, if there are no buyers of these compounds left on the market, then we’ve suddenly solved the problem of creating any more,” Yetter-Bowman explained.
To help build that pressure, Yetter-Bowman is planning a community-centered rollout for the documentary, nearing its full release in 2026. Rather than a standard streaming release, the focus will be on in-person events and university tours, including a screening at UNCW.
“I hope people walk away and realize that their voices actually do matter and can make a massive, massive difference,” they said. “There’s an incredible amount of positivity and optimism to do this and we can find that so much better in solidarity.”
Audiences can catch a special, free screening of the rough-cut on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at Jengo’s Playhouse. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the film begins at 6:30 p.m. Following the screening, the filmmakers will host a discussion to gather community feedback and insights to help shape the film before its full debut.
Have tips or suggestions for Charlie Fossen? Email charlie@localdailymedia.com
At Port City Daily, we aim to keep locals informed on top-of-mind news facing the tri-county region. To support our work and help us reach more people in 2026, please, consider helping one of two ways: Subscribe here or make a one-time contribution here.
We appreciate your ongoing support.
