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The Golden Rule

Written by: Diane Mellen, Stacey Stone |   Directed by: Stacey Stone |  Genre: Documentary

 From Stacey Stone and Diane Mellen comes a look at how money makes industry do bad, bad things. A few decades ago, there was a big cover up of a nuclear meltdown in Santa Susana, and even now, its effects are still felt. Sickness, cancer, pretty much everything you can think of relating to a nuclear disaster happened, and instead of coming clean, those involved denied everything and continued to say everything was safe for the people. This cover up went on for decades in one form or another.

 We, as humans, are a destructive species. But once you add money into the mix, humanity tends to get even worse. It’s all about the bottom line and how much these big corporations can make or save. The people of Santa Susana have a 60% higher cancer rate than other places, according to this film, and that even includes children. Are things getting cleaned up? Not like they should be, and up until relatively recently, there were still massive cover up attempts. In The Golden Rule, we meet many people who live in and around the area. We learn of the BS companies were trying to spread, saying the soil was safe all the way until 2006 when it was finally publically revealed that it wasn’t far from it. This is a documentary all about greed and dangers. And about the people who have to live through it all.

 There is a little more to this documentary than the Santa Susana angle; other similar issues of pollution and such are talked about but not as much. The look and feel of The Golden Rule is designed to add some excitement to the standard documentary format. You could call it the Michael Bay style of documentary that relies on quick editing and lots of content to keep your eyes interested, as your ears gather all the spoken information. But the story being told is still the heart, and sometimes it’s heartbreaking. Kids getting cancer. People wanting to leave the contaminated areas but not being able to financially. It’s eye opening and scary because it’s not fiction.

 The Golden Rule overall may not be a film that will surprise you with things you don’t already know or suspect, but will shock you with individual stories. These people are not actors. They are real people that deserve much better. But The Golden Rule also alludes to the bigger issue. The issue the world is inevitably going to face. I give this informative documentary four stars and thank you for reading.

The Golden Rule TRAILER from Stacey Stone on Vimeo.

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