Acclaimed documentary filmmaker and Emerson College Professor John Gianvito’s new film is a devastating and insightful condemnation of the dangerous U.S. military practices that have recklessly exposed an entire community in the Philippines to a host of fatal toxins. Centered around an abandoned U.S. military base, Gianvito’s gripping exploration of the military’s lack of regulation and responsibility uses the horrific environmental contamination as a starting point for a meditation on the crippling effects of colonialism and unchecked militarism. A skillful melding of cinema-vérité, interviews, historical texts and landscape photography, Vapor Trail is a unique and urgent political intervention.
While Vapor Trail (Clark) focuses principally upon the repercussions of Clark Air Force Base closing, Gianvito is currently editing a companion work, Vapor Trail (Subic), which examines the effects of the Subic Naval Base, also located in the Philippines.