Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal is a film about a woman who discovers that her child’s school is built on land with deadly chemicals. She pushes for the health department to investigate, and the department shuts down the school and forces people to leave their homes on the land. Gibbs then pushes for affected people to receive compensation for what they lost. The movie is the true story of an average American woman standing up for her overlooked community until the federal government was forced to make a change.

The story depicted in this film is somewhat similar to what is happening in America with the COVID-19 crisis in a few ways. For example, consider how the crisis is exposing health care disparities between communities of white and Black Americans. These disparities have unfortunately existed for generations and have led to Black Americans dying at a higher rate than white Americans from COVID-19. This health-related injustice (like the one in the movie) is motivating millions of everyday American citizens to take to action and push for social change.

The story in the film is also quite different from the current COVID-19 crisis. For example, consider how the health crisis in the movie only impacted a small portion of the country. This fact by no means makes the crisis less important, but it means that it did not receive the same amount of international attention that COVID-19 received.