Mann v. Ford

This feature documentary follows members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian tribe in Ringwood, NJ, in their five - year search for justice through a mass - action, tort lawsuit. From the middle '50s to the late '70s, the Ford Motor Company operated an assembly plant in Mahwah, NJ that produced millions of classic American cars. The waste from this plant, including thousands of tons of toxic lead - based paint sludge, was trucked to Ringwood and dumped into abandoned mine shafts and throughout the woods surrounding the Ramapough's homes. The working - class residents of the area have suffered from a range of ailments, including skin problems, bleeding disorders and increased rates of cancer and miscarriage, ever since. The EPA placed Ringwood on the Federal Superfund Priorities list in the 1970's and the site was officially "cleaned - up" and taken off the list in the 1990's. But the toxins remained.

After years of community effort, the EPA admitted it had "missed" nearly 80 percent of the toxins - and returned the Ramapough's homeland to the Superfund list (the first time this has ever happened). This film charts the community's epic battle to secure a healthy future for their children through a major lawsuit against one of the most powerful corporations in America, the Ford Motor Company, and our flawed environmental guardians at the EPA.

The leader of a the Ramapough Mountain Indians takes on one of the biggest auto-makers in the U.S. after discovering that Ford Motor Company has purchased a large plot of their land for dumping the toxic waste. In 1955, Ford opened the nation's biggest auto manufacturing plant in Mahwah, NJ. In the decades that followed, the factory produced thousands of automobiles, as well as the unwanted byproduct of toxic paint sludge. When that waste was subsequently dumped in the forests and derelict iron minds near the Ramapough Mountain Indians' homes, their leader Wayne Mann made the decision to hold both Ford and the Environmental Protection Agency accountable for their blatant negligence and disregard for the health of the local population.