The story started with a call from a professor at UC Santa Barbara who had found something during an unrelated underwater research mission.

From that tip, the story would grow into a series of articles about toxic waste along California’s coastline and was eventually adapted into a full-length documentary. The film, titled “Out of Plain Sight,” will be making its West Coast premiere during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

“Out of Plain Sight” details the journey of how a tip from Professor David Valentine sent Los Angeles Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist Rosanna Xia on an investigation that revealed the presence of decaying barrels of DDT in the ocean and the history of ocean waste.

DDT, formally known as Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, was an insecticide developed in the 1940s and used up until the 1970s. The chemical was discontinued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1972 due to its harmful effect on the environment and people.

In her reporting, Xia was able to build on Valentine’s tip and revealed half a million barrels of toxic waste located on the seafloor between Los Angeles and Catalina Island.

Valentine runs the Valentine Lab along with his team at UC Santa Barbara. There they study biogeochemistry, ecology and evolution.

Xia stated that one of the themes of the documentary was the history of how people used the ocean as a dumping ground for waste and the philosophy of “out of sight, out of mind.”

“We have a history that has been largely forgotten of using the ocean as these disposal sites for our industrial waste,” Xia said.

Xia’s story developed into a series of articles that sparked conversations in Congress.

The idea for a documentary started after she was approached by brothers Austin and Daniel Straub. The two were working on another documentary when they heard about Xia’s story.

“We reached out to Rosanna and then showed up after a panel that she had moderated and approached her and talked to her about the idea,” said Daniel Straub.

“Within a couple months, we were on a boat [and started] filming, and it was an incredible experience.”

All three worked as producers on the film, while Daniel Straub partnered with Xia as directors and Austin Straub worked as the cinematographer.

This is Daniel Straub’s first movie as a director. He has worked on film crews in the past, and Austin Straub is an Emmy-nominated cinematographer.

In creating the film, Xia said she wanted to ensure the topic was told in a way that respected the journalism behind the story and centered on the science. She says the film does well.

“This is a story that doesn’t need to be sensationalized and needs to be told responsibly and (…) my gut in that moment, when I met Daniel and Austin, was like, ‘this was the team that would do it,’” Xia said.

One of the changes that Xia had to adapt to in creating the documentary was working in front of the camera. In her role as a print journalist, she was used to being behind the scenes.

However, the brothers convinced her to appear on the camera and allow the audience to see the movie through her eyes.

“I think there was some hesitation initially to be sort of like on camera doing that part of the journalism as well,” Daniel Straub said.

“But we felt like it was important for people to be in those spaces, not just as like an observer, but there through the lens of the journalism that made the public aware of the story in the first place.”

Xia said one of the things she’s proud of about the film is that it allowed her to build off the work she had already done and tell the story in a different way.  

“Out of Plain Sight” will be shown three times during the SBIFF: on Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. at the SBIFF Film Center, Feb. 9 at 12 p.m. at the Riviera Theatre, and on Feb. 10 at 9:20 a.m. at the SBIFF Film Center.

The Feb. 9 showing will also feature a research panel after the movie. The panel will be hosted by Xia and will be held at El Encanto.

Tickets can be purchased through the documentary film site at outofplainsight.com, or passes can be purchased on the SBIFF website at sbiff.org.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will begin on Feb. 4 and run until Feb. 15.