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Symposium

Special screening of award-winning Los Angeles Times documentary OUT OF PLAIN SIGHT

December 11, 2025

6:30 PM - 9:00 PM (EST)

Upcoming

Regional focus

North America

Join the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS) and the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital (DCEFF) for a special screening and Q&A discussion of the award-winning documentary film, Out of Plain Sight.

"Haunting, enraging, and a vital addition to environmental storytelling."

-- Scott Z. Burns, producer of An Inconvenient Truth

From the Los Angeles Times and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rosanna Xia, Out of Plain Sight is a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California.
Not far from Catalina Island, aboard one of the most-advanced research ships in the world, David Valentine discovered a corroded barrel on the seafloor that gave him chills. The full environmental horror sharpens into greater clarity once he calls Xia, who pieces together a shocking revelation: In the years after World War II, as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean – and the consequences continue to haunt the world today.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Los Angeles Times environmental reporter Rosanna Xia (director, producer) will moderate a post-screening discussion with the following scientists featured in the film:
Dr. David Valentine (UC Santa Barbara)

Dr. Alissa Deming (Pacific Marine Mammal Center)

Dr. Eunha Hoh (San Diego State University)

Dr. Lihini Aluwihare (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

Learn more at www.cpnas.org

Location

National Academy of Sciences Building

2101 Constitution Ave NW

Washington DC 20418, USA

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

Organizers

Major units and sub-units

National Academy of Sciences

Primary

Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences

Primary

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