Hiding in the Walls: the untold stories of Baltimore’s lead poisoning epidemic

Join us for a free screening of Hiding in the Walls followed by a Q & A with producers Angel King Wilson and David Sebastiao. 

Millions of people in America today are living with lead poisoning or complications from chronic lead exposure. Lead-based products — especially paint — are commonplace in houses built before the 1970s, and prolonged exposure can have detrimental effects on health, brain development, and cognitive functioning. A child with lead poisoning is more likely than their peers to struggle academically, experience behavioral issues, and even have interactions with the criminal justice system. Yet despite its known risks, the use of lead-based paint in American homes persisted for more than 50 years after it was banned by the League of Nations in 1922. 

In cities like Baltimore, Maryland, where the history of lead paint coincides with a history of racially discriminatory housing policies, the ongoing epidemic of lead poisoning has had a lopsided effect on black communities and neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. The growing awareness of lead's developmental impacts have created a harmful stigma for lead poisoning survivors, and a destructive financial industry has emerged to prey on those who have been awarded legal settlements.  

Hiding in the Walls offers a look at the unseen dangers of lead poisoning in America, re-contextualizing the issue as not merely a symptom but a root cause of many cyclical issues that communities face. It unwinds the fraught history of lead paint in low-income housing, explains how lead poisoning became an acceptable norm in urban America, and follows the adult survivors who are on a mission to reclaim the

narrative.

Angel King Wilson is an author, director, professor, and entrepreneur based in Baltimore, MD.  She earned her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Baltimore and is a recipient of the 2022 Maryland Literary Artists Award. Angel is the author of "Am I Doing This Right?" and the co-director of the award-winning film Hiding in the Walls.

David Sebastiao is a video editor and independent filmmaker from Baltimore, MD. He currently works for the Social Security Administration. As an independent filmmaker, David strives to uplift local voices and issues. He produced the short documentary Welcome to Mullens, WV in 2019 and the award-winning feature length documentary Hiding in the Walls in 2022. David was selected for the Docs in Progress fellowship program in 2022.