Directors Bradley Beesley (Summer Camp, Roller Girls), James Payne and Julianna Brannum (Payne and Brannum are first-time directors here) have collaborated on a project that looks at the toxic legacy of lead mining in a small community in Oklahoma. The town of Pilcher, and its surrounding area, were declared a Superfund site way back in 1981 (that’s almost 30 years, folks) and the residents have been fighting for justice, and their children’s health, ever since. The Creek Runs Red is the next installment on Independent Lens this season and airs tomorrow night on your local PBS affiliate station. Here’s the trailer.

I had a chance to speak, at length, with Brannum about the making of the film and the unique collaboration the three directors shared in its creation. All working from different locations and never in the editing room simultaneously, it proved to be quite a challenge in presenting a strong directorial voice, since that was split three ways, in more than one sense. Beesley’s photography background shows itself off in fine form–since sound and image can coalesce so easily in completely random ways, the precise tone and palette and framing he uses throughout the film speak to a very deliberate eye. He uses the poisonous landscape for his beauty shots and it’s quite affecting, especially as a counterpoint to the story which is narrated solely by the people who have lived in this town all their lives. As the directors’ statement says, it is truly “the point of view of a small community.”

Brannum also explained that finding their subjects took quite a few trips out there over several years’ time. Understandably leery of more “outsiders” coming in and poking around their backyard and then leaving again without really doing much to help them, the townspeople eventually rewarded the filmmakers for their dedication and patience with their heartfelt and honest interviews–and compelling characters they are, with craggy, sculpted faces and rough-hewn voices that bring the best of Dorothea Lange’s depression-era photography to mind.

Beesley has also worked extensively with the band The Flaming Lips (one of my personal faves, I’ve had their official screen saver on my Mac for years) and their music is featured as part of the original soundtrack. Beesley has also directed the definitive Lips doc, Fearless Freaks. Check out the cool trailer on Beesley’s site here.

Check your local listings and try and catch this public TV broadcast debut. On my blog in the near future, I will be posting an in-depth interview with Brannum as part of my series on international female nonfiction filmmakers. Right now, you can read a new interview with spitfire, Cynthia Wade, director of this year’s festival fave Freeheld. Due to extremely sensitive Academy Award rules and regs, we don’t get to talk about her run for Oscar in this initial conversation, but we do talk about all the ethical, and other hairy, issues inherent in doing the kind of excrutiatingly intimate films Wade does. Check it out here.