SOUTHSIDER FILMS
The world from another perspective
Current Project
The Plume, a nonfiction film
"This is an extraordinarily rare case when someone who personally suffered environmental injustice also has the professional skill as a seasoned broadcast journalist to tell the story through film."
- Jane Kay, Environmental Journalist
Project Update
We have completed another major milestone in the filming of our feature-length documentary, The Plume. On Saturday, December 13, 2025, a historic gathering took place in the Mission Manor Park featuring important political leaders and environmental justice activists. We captured this unprecedented event with multiple cameras and cinema sound for our film.
Mariachi Los Diablitos de Sunnyside provided live music for approximately 200 people, who attended.
Speakers included U.S. Representative, Adelita Grijalva; Betty Villegas, Arizona state Congresswoman, Betty Villegas; Pima County Supervisor, Andrés Cano; Tucson Mayor, Regina Romero; activists Eduardo Quintana, Linda Robles and Bobby Jaramillo; and curators Sunaura Taylor and Alisha Vasquez.
Many delivered deeply moving speeches about the little-known history of the industrial contamination of Tucson's aquifer from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. The public health and emotional impact on our families, friends, and neighbors has been immense and it remains an largely untold story.
Participants provided personal photos of their family members who died of cancers and other related diseases on the southside of Tucson.
This historic gathering will appear in our forthcoming nonfiction film, The Plume.
U.S. Representative Adelita Grijalva observes a permanent monument for people who died from ground water contamination in Tucson, Arizona.
Photos by HCortez Media
About the Film
Four decades after leaving his Arizona hometown, journalist Franc Contreras returns to Tucson to learn the true history from the perspective of those affected by the dumping of deadly chemicals from a military weapons factory and other high-tech industries.
The chemical contamination destroyed his desert community’s main source of underground water, and killed an untold number of his neighbors and perhaps his own mother.
Tucson’s Southside has lived with the consequences of this contamination for decades. Families are still fighting to be heard, healed, and remembered. This film honors their courage and their truth.
A classic 1969 Volkswagen Beetle, known as La Gotita with Mexican license plates, will appear in this film.
Donate to this Film
We've completed filming 75 percent of the footage needed for this project. Please add your email to our list of followers, and help us finish this film by donating in the following categories. You will receive regular updates and your name will appear in the film credits
Donation Categories
KEEPERS OF THE STORY: $25 to $499
Help preserve stories that deserve to be seen and heard.
You’ll receive: • Name listed on the Community Supporters page on our website • A heartfelt thank-you video from the filmmaker
WATER BEARERS: $500 to $2,499
Carry these stories forward and help amplify their reach.
You’ll receive everything above, plus • Name listed in the film credits under Community Contributors • Ongoing access to Director’s Notes (supporter-only Substack) • The Plume reusable water bottle • Signed photo print from the documentary • Invitation to a private online Q&A / livestream with the filmmaker and guests
LEGACY PARTNERS: $2,500 to $4,999
Become a major partner in completing and sharing this film.
You’ll receive everything above, plus • Associate Producer credit in the final film • Official Southsider Films t-shirt • A personal thank-you call from the filmmaker • Invitation to an exclusive private screening (virtual or Tucson-based) • Recognition on the Southsider Films website
GUARDIANS OF THE RECORD: $5,000 +
Safeguard this story for generations to come.
You’ll receive everything above, plus • Executive Producer credit • Invitation to a private dinner connected to the film’s premiere • Permanent acknowledgment in future press materials and screenings
A Hidden Tragedy Comes to Light
Since the 1980s, environmental justice activists, mostly women, have been confronting powerful politicians and companies, and demanding reparations for widespread cancer deaths and other serious illnesses caused by the dumping of carcinogens into the desert at night.
Environmental justice activist Rose Agustine took on government officials and weapons makers responsible for the water contamination.
Self-educated activist Linda Robles is one of the latest leaders of the environmental justice movement on Tucson's southside.
More than a decade passed before officials began cleaning up the highly contaminated aquifer that served for generations as our desert community's main source of water.
"Super Dave" Gutierrez has survived five bouts of cancer.
A carwash on the Southside of Tucson has been using water contaminated by industrial chemicals for decades.
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