Zack Johnson and Conor B. Lewis.

Posted on February 28, 2018 

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Conor B. Lewis and Zack Johnson, who are the minds behind the latest asbestos documentary, “Dirty Laundry.” The film highlights the cousins’ 4,200 mile bike ride across the nation to honor of their grandmother, who lost her life to mesothelioma.  During their trip, the pair engaged with every day Americans whose lives and communities have been drastically impacted by the deadly carcinogen asbestos. The film is already creating buzz and has been named an official 2018 selection for the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival. Be sure to check out the film in a location near you.

LINDA: Tell me a little about you.
 
CONOR and ZACK: We are Conor B. Lewis and Zack Johnson, the cousins behind the feature asbestos documentary “Dirty Laundry”. We are based out of St. Louis, Missouri and Alton, Illinois respectively. We were raised on opposite sides of the Mississippi River, however our family has strong roots in the small town of Roxana, Illinois where much of our film takes place.
 
LINDA: Why did you make “Dirty Laundry”?
 
CONOR and ZACK: We were working together at a family member’s law firm when we started to dig into the circumstances surrounding our grandmother’s death from mesothelioma. It is a disease we had only ever heard referenced in late night TV commercials, neither of us realized that mesothelioma had a direct cause, asbestos. Our grandmother was 90 years old when she passed and it happened quite suddenly. It wasn’t a shock at the time, the shock came when we learned just how she was exposed to asbestos. Our grandfather worked as a pipe insulator at the Shell Oil Refinery on the edge of town. Everyday he went to work and wrapped pipes in asbestos. When he came home our grandmother would take his dirty work cover-alls and shake them out in an attempt to keep her washing machine clean of this ‘dirt’ and ‘dust’. It was this service that eventually ended her life. When we learned of this story we decided we had to do something, that’s when “Dirty Laundry” was born. Without much knowledge of documentary filmmaking and a loose idea of what we wanted to accomplish, we set off across the country on bicycles, meeting up with people and hearing stories from those who have also been affected by asbestos. That was the summer of 2016. Two years later, we have a feature length film chronicling our journey and hopefully giving the audience a look into a devastating and avoidable problem.
 
LINDA: What were you surprised to learn?
 
CONOR and ZACK: What surprised us the most was the fact that there is NO safe level of asbestos exposure and that asbestos remains legal, lethal and everywhere. In fact both of us had asbestos scares in our own homes (Zack’s ended up not being asbestos, Conor’s was asbestos). We didn’t have any idea how prevalent the product actually is currently. The other big thing we learned is just how devastating and swift mesothelioma strikes. In fact we had an interview subject we met at the end of our trip who was diagnosed right before out trip and unfortunately passed before we ever finished the film, his name is Robert Northrup and we were so honored to have the opportunity to speak with him and hear his perspective. That was a hard reality check for us as we have been finishing this film – this disease and this problem are brutal.
 
LINDA: Where did you find your strength to ride 4,200 miles across the nation?
 
CONOR and ZACK: We could lie and say that we were inspired by all these people we talked to, but when it comes down to it we just kept turning our pedals day after day trying to hang on. Much like people who get an asbestos diagnosis – we woke up and took it one pedal stroke (or step) at a time and did the best we could. While riding your bike 4,200 miles over two months sounds hard, it’s nothing like getting a meso diagnosis. That hit us as we were riding – what we did is so much easier than this disease, it’s not even comparable! It gave us a renewed understanding of just how bad asbestos diseases are.
 
On a lighter note, the real secret to riding your bike across the country is food (all the food!) water (all the water and Gatorade (and Coke)) and SPF 50 (the sun is really strong in the western US). We basically would get up and cram as much food into our bodies as possible and start pedaling. Lunch was almost always sandwiches we made or bought. The end of the day never came soon enough, that last hour of riding to our destination was almost always done in a hungry and tired silence. We then would get as much food as we could get for dinner and get up and do it again! Our average daily mileage was about 85 miles and the trip took us from Astoria, Oregon on August 4th, 2016 to New York City on October 19th, 2016.
 
LINDA: What do you hope to accomplish with your film?
 
CONOR and ZACK:  Our goal at the outset was to make a true and honest film about this problem, told through the lens of our family. Ultimately we wanted to tell this story to a whole new generation of home renovators and future change-makers. We hope to make the film widely available on streaming platforms so that it is easy to view for anyone who want’s an introduction to this problem.
 
LINDA: What do you want lawmakers to know?
 
CONOR and ZACK: We’re filmmakers! Not professional advocates! (Like the amazing Linda Reinstein). BUT if we had to tell one thing to lawmakers it’s this – why? Why is this still a problem? Why are we still importing this lethal fiber? Why don’t we have corporate transparency? Haven’t we moved beyond this?
 
LINDA: How can the ADAO community help you with your film?
 
CONOR and ZACK: We would love for the ADAO community to help share our film with the U.S.! Film has a special voice in today’s culture and if we can get the word out about “Dirty Laundry” to as many people as possible then maybe the we can get the attention of a whole new set of people who would never think about asbestos.
 
If we can make enough noise, we can get this film widely available on all the streaming platforms (Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/iTunes as well as DVDs/rentals). That is our goal for the next year – build a following and shout this film out so we can use it to help educate a new generation.
 
Please follow/like/share our film’s journey while we try to get it widely available for everyone to see. Find us on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram: 
https://asbestos.movie @asbestosmovie You can also follow Zack and Conor at their personal accounts for more behind the scenes on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram: @zjohn893 and @conorblewis