“What should we call you?” I ask Leila Mendez before our Q and A session after a screening of Monsters, Greenpeace’s documentary about Leila and Chicago’s fight to shut down an ancient coal plant.Star? Too Hollywood.Documentary subject? Too weird.Kick-ass activist? Bingo.
“Did you ever feel worried for your safety?”
The answer is yes.
“Did you ever give up hope?”
The answer is no.
“What can we do to help?”
So we start talking about the Big Bend plant, just an hour’s drive north, which has been fined for polluting the Tampa Bay with coal ash and which relies on mountaintop removal coal.
If you’d like to see the film, it’s not too late. It screens again today at the Sarasota Film Festival, and hopefully someday soon in a theater near you. If you’d like to arrange a screening in your community, please let me know at melissa.thompson@greenpeace.