Director Jordan Melograna and Co-producer Christa Hillstrom of Dysmocracy: The Fight Over Fluoride hosted an interactive screening of their 2024 documentary at the DeVos Bytwerk Theater on Monday, Feb. 9. The on-campus screening was organized by Sam Smartt, professor of communications, and it was made possible by the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics and the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship.
The documentary follows the 2016 political unrest caused by the debate over water fluoridation in Port Angeles, WA. The summary on Dysmocracy’s website reads, “What begins as an argument over water fluoridation in a small town escalates into a crisis that threatens to collapse local government, a warning of how fragile democracy becomes when opposing sides can’t agree on what’s true.”
Before the documentary began, viewers were asked to take a survey to compile their initial opinions on water fluoridation. The filmmakers would occasionally pause the documentary and ask the viewers to retake the same survey. However, they weren’t interested in convincing the audience that fluoridation is good or bad; the purpose was to see what percentage of people would be willing to change their minds. Ultimately, 60.6% of participants altered their perspective to some degree.
In the documentary, the proponents of fluoridation say it is a cost-effective and accessible way to improve community dental health, especially in children. At the same time, opponents argued that it is a toxic byproduct being forced on the people by the government. According to the CDC, although toxic in high doses, fluoride is not dangerous at the recommended amount for water fluoridation, which is 0.7 parts per million. A minority of scientists, however, have raised questions surrounding the validity of scientific studies and the efficacy of fluoridation.
On Jan. 25, 1945, Grand Rapids became the first city in the world to fluoridate drinking water. Today, over 60% of Americans drink fluoridated water, although there has been a trend of communities pushing to remove fluoride from local water supplies. Last year, Utah became the first state to ban water fluoridation, says Melograna.
Melograna, a native of Washington state, said that he has wanted to show Dysmocracy in Grand Rapids since he began production in 2016, crediting Grand Rapids as the beginning of both the fluoridation experiment and the counter-movement. He believes that residents of Grand Rapids should watch the film as students of our own history and as citizens during a time of political polarization.
Throughout the event, Melograna and Hillstrom stressed that Dysmocracy is, in essence, not about the advantages and disadvantages of fluoridation. Rather, it is about how we should talk to each other when we disagree and how democracy ought to function when we can’t agree on what’s true.
Melograna wanted to make this film because the fluoridation debate was one in which people couldn’t retreat into the comfortable corner of their political party. Dysmocracy shatters the echo chambers of modern political discourse by portraying what happens when a hot-button political issue doesn’t have a partisan line drawn through it. The words “Democrat” and “Republican” are scarcely found in the film, and the political standings of the people featured in the documentary are not revealed. Melograna says a much greater number of people are willing to be open-minded about issues when they don’t feel like they’re betraying their political party.
Dysmocracy poses several questions regarding how far we can push the idea of a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” before it breaks. In Port Angeles, protests led to a refusal to pay utility bills, boycotts of local businesses that used the fluoridated water, and threats to reform the city government. Fluoride was eventually removed from their water supply, but it required methods that impeded the city council’s responsibilities.
The event ended with Melograna and Hillstrom asking the audience about their thoughts, not on fluoride, but on how democracy functioned in Port Angeles. Multiple respondents shared concerns about the way that social media had a negative role to play, spreading mistrust and falsities in the community.
Melograna and Hillstrom are hosting screenings of Dysmocracy: The Fight Over Fluoride across the U.S., with the next showing being held on Feb. 20 at the University of Washington.
Original article online at: https://calvinchimes.org/2026/02/16/fluoridation-documentary-examines-how-we-talk-about-politics/