Metcalf’s 2026 Annual Leeson Lecture on June 23 Featured an Exclusive Screening of Rosanna Xia’s ‘Out of Plain Sight’
The Los Angeles Times environmental reporter and 2018 Metcalf alum screened her award-winning documentary followed by a conversation with Metcalf Executive Director Fara Warner
Metcalf’s Annual Public Lecture Series continued on Tuesday, June 23, 2026 with our Annual Leeson Lecture featuring an exclusive screening of the award-winning documentary, “Out of Plain Sight,” and a conversation with the filmmaker Rosanna Xia, Los Angeles Times environmental reporter and 2018 alum of Metcalf’s Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists. This event coincided with the Institute’s 28th Annual Workshop, which focused on some of the world’s most urgent environmental challenges: plastics, pollution, and PFAS (also known as forever chemicals).
“Out of Plain Sight” is described as “a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California.” Through her reporting, Xia learns that in the years after World War II, as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean, and she uncovers the consequences that continue to haunt the world today. Xia also directed and produced the film, which has received numerous film festival honors, including the Audience Choice Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Jackson Wild Media Award for Best Investigative Film. You can watch the trailer here.
In addition to her reporting for the Times, Xia was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting, and her celebrated book on climate change adaptation, “California Against the Sea,” received the PEN America/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, a gold medal from the California Book Awards, and a special citation from the Library of Congress, among other honors.
Metcalf’s Leeson Lecture, named in honor of former Metcalf advisory council member Rob Leeson, is free and open to the public. The event took place at the Corless Auditorium on the University of Rhode Island Bay Campus.
Learn More About the Leeson lecture