Part angry doc about a conspiracy to poison the environment in upstate New York in the early 1990s and part warm-hearted high school recollection, the engrossing Middletown examines how an unconventional teacher inspired a group of teens to make student films that exposed organised crime in dumping poisonous materials into landfill sites in their community.
Revisiting the story – as well as the wannabe filmmakers and their teacher – some 30 years later, the film offers an inspiring look at how they confronted the indifferent adults, corrupt politicians and a criminal organisation threatening their town, and produced an investigative documentary that causes shockwaves in their community. This is engagingly set alongside amusing and nostalgic video outtakes of the students as new interviews allow them to dwell on this defining time in their lives.
There is a degree of playful video nostalgia about the way co-directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine use retro-style opening credits to open their story, as they show a barrel being rolled from the back of a pick-up and oozing out a dark substance that bleeds over the credit block. Add to that footage of children and dogs playing in a pond with a voiceover stating “what if there’s toxic waste in here?” and the scene is nicely set.
There is engaging scene-setting about the low-key town. There’s nothing especially memorable about Middletown, NY, despite it being one of the largest towns in Orange County, and only 70 miles north of Manhattan. Most New Yorkers – as archival interviews reveal – have never heard of it. Previously known for agriculture, this middle-class suburban town attracted families away from the big city.
As one interviewee comments, the basis to the story is “young people rising up to the challenge…and doing something about it,” but the driving force was very much Fred Isseks (also known as “Hippie Fred or Crazy Fred”), an English teacher at Middletown High School, who began an elective course called Electronic English in 1991, when the school acquired a handful of video cameras.
Students who took his class made music videos, news bulletins and silly skits – “we could just be ourselves,” reflected student Rachel Raimist. But things changed when Fred’s friend
Don Tirrell tipped him off to the dumping of toxic waste in their town.
The students set about covering town hall meetings, interviewing rather annoyed local politicians, chatting to locals such as landfill worker Dutch Smith (who admitted “if you can name it, it’s in there”) and state pathologist Ward Stone, and uncovering documents through freedom of information requests. Over the course of a decade, multiple classes contributed to the documentary filmmaking, eventually resulting in an hour-long exposé called Garbage, Gangsters and Greed, which also tackled the ill-advised solution of constructing a cap over the Wallkill landfill.
As well as interviews with Fred Isseks, the story of their work is recounted by four former students – Rachel Raimist, Jeff DuTemple, Mike Regan and David Birmingham – all set alongside original 1990s footage and home move material from Fred and Rachel which helps set the scene of raucous teenage life and the developing indignation and anger that drove the investigation.
Middletown is a powerful and engaging coming-of-age story that calls out to be adapted into a drama version. The students worked hard, developed as people, but ultimately had to finish their course and move on. But Fred never gave up, and ended up helping to inspire a sense of civic courage within a series of youngsters who could just as easily been dismissed by the adults charged with running their community, but who ultimately believed in what they were doing and kept on challenging and fighting.
US, 2025, 110mins
Dirs: Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine
Production: Rise Films, Mile End Films
International sales: Submarine Entertainment
Producers: Teddy Leifer, Florrie Priest, Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine, Danny Breen
Editor: Christopher Passig
Cinematography: Thorsten Thielow
Music: Todd Griffin
With: Fred Isseks, Rachel Raimist, Jeff DuTemple, Mike Regan, David Birmingham.
