Lake Michigan, Milwaukee Wisconsin, USA
The Director writes: The film was shot on two afternoons with a chaperone, following the process that wastewater is treated, made into Milorganite, or returned to Lake Michigan. Upon my initial research and talking with others, I have learned that not many people have considered where or how wastewater is treated or how the system is designed.
This film is my contribution to ongoing conversations from a diverse group of thinkers, scholars, designers, farmers who are looking at ways to improve the ways we interact with infrastructure. Their work considers the impacts and complications that global warming continues to present within these systems. Closing the nutrient cycles is one of those ways that this is being considered. I wonder what could be revealed by going to the source? I did a lot of research on biosolids, this specific site, and its history.