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Nateya Taylor's twelve minute documentary Something in the Water has screened at several film festivals across the United States, including the 2026 Reel Black Film Festival, which is where I watched it.
Despite being a short documentary, Something in the Water is very informative and impactful, showcasing the issue of water lead poisoning in Milwaukee.
In older parts of Milwaukee, lead runs through the pipes, which means it's in the drinking water that comes out of people's sinks. The build-up of lead in the body can have many adverse effects, especially for children. The film shows that kids in these areas are continually tested for lead exposure throughout their young lives.
"Three out of 10 children in older areas of Milwaukee get lead poisoning."
While anyone can be vulernable to lead poisoning, in Milwaukee, black populations are specifically at risk. This is because Milwaukee, like many American cities, has a history of redlining.
Redlining, or the practice of restricting who can live in a neighborhood based on race, is no longer legal, but its effects are still with us today. Many areas are still somewhat segregated in that large populations of single races tend to live in specific areas of cities.
Non-white areas tend to be less affluent than areas where white people are the majority of the population. The people in these poorer areas have less access to resources and therefore are more at risk in several categories, including health.
The city's history and the little progress towards fixing the problem leaves many residents believing that the lack of help is intentional.
"The plan was always to wipe out populations."Embed from Getty Images
Luckily, natives of the area have been taking action. The film shows the Coalition on Lead Emergency (COLE) performing lead tests on children to keep them safe. Formed by parents and community members, COLE has made many efforts to end water injustice in Milwaukee.
Something in the Water also showcases efforts made by the Milwaukee Water Commons (MWC). Similarly to COLE, MWC aims to allow access to clean water to everyone in Milwaukee. Their strategy in the film is to find a way to get old pipes replaced as they are the source of the issue.
Something in the Water reminds us that water pollution isn't just an environmental problem; it's a human one, too. The environment is worth protecting for its own sake, but these issues don't exist in a vacuum. They intertwine with problems like racial injustice and class conflict. None of these problems can be solved alone; we have to work on all of them in order to see a better future.
Taylor's film certainly earned the accolades it received at the Reel Black Film Festival, which was the judges' choice award in the documentary category.
