Slamdance 2026: ‘The Bulldogs’ Review
It takes something monumental for small towns like East Palestine, Ohio, to take root in society’s consciousness. There’s a quiet that anonymity brings that can be comforting, but when tragedy strikes, it means an uphill battle to secure and maintain attention so help can be provided. Rural North America can feel unseen, but worse than unseen is simply being forgotten and left to fend for itself. Ori Segev and Noah Dixon’s The Bulldogs keep East Palestine in the spotlight after the news and global attention dissipate following an incident. In the process, the footage and interviews with residents capture a fractured community fighting for answers and struggling to have their worries acknowledged.
An insular nature fuels this security in isolation: whatever’s going on in the cities and major hubs of a country won’t threaten survival. It takes a train derailing from the track and spilling hazardous chemicals in its wake for that safety to be punctured in East Palestine. Fearing an explosion, an evacuation is ordered, and citizens are rushed out of their homes on February 3rd, 2023. In an effort to prevent an explosion, 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride are burned to prevent further damage to the town. However, in its haste to bring back the residents of East Palestine, fear begins to take hold as vinyl chloride is not only a known carcinogen but was also perhaps an unnecessary step taken that has now poisoned the town’s water supply.
The Bulldogs primarily focuses on the period after the news vans have all stopped paying attention, six months after the incident. Media attention has left the village, and the residents of East Palestine find themselves conflicted as they can clearly see that their water supply is still unsafe, but tests done by corporations claim the opposite. While some residents accept what they’re being told, others engage in an ongoing conversation to draw attention to the irrevocable damage done to their town by burning a carcinogen without proper containment protocols. To hear some talk about it, it’s a frustrating experience that they’re being forced to try and reckon with on their own, while for others, the frustration bleeds through to the audience as residents in the town decide to move forward without resolving the issue.
Politics—local, national, and global—play a massive part in Segev and Dixon’s depiction of East Palestine. Local chiropractor Dr. Rick Tsai is running for office on a platform that seeks to address chemical damage to the town’s water. Meanwhile, the 2024 presidential election looms overhead, with the only visit to the town coming from Donald Trump, effectively securing his voter turnout by making a timely appearance. A scene later in the film juxtaposes the town’s issues with national politics, while a group of protestors try to have their voices heard about the genocide happening in Gaza. The scene peels back the many layers of a rural American town in such a succinct and precise manner that you can see their concerns about being slowly poisoned being brushed under the rug by broader and more global issues.
Segev and Dixon capture myriad accounts of how the incident affected local residents, some of which feel more superfluous than others, but all contribute to the same overwhelming feeling of being affected by others yet still disconnected from them. It risks fracturing a community and destabilizing their sense of security. There’s a tight-knit support system being threatened by the world around them, and as those walls come crashing down with little accountability, that loneliness only gets worse. The Bulldogs is a depressing tale of people being left behind, but it’s also an illuminating glimpse into how small towns form allegiances simply by feeling seen and heard. At a time when partisan politics seems more volatile than ever, East Palestine reveals itself as a compelling case study in how rural areas end up voting one way or the other.
The 2026 edition of the Slamdance Film Festival marked the festival's 32nd anniversary, taking place in person from February 19th to 25th and virtually via slamdancechannel.com from February 24th to March 6th.
