DIRTY OIL plus Panel Discussion
A Picturehouse DOCS screening, introduced via satellite by Neve Campbell and followed by a satellite panel discussion
DIRTY OIL (Cert TBC)
Director: Leslie Iwerks. Starring: Andrew Nikiforuk, Lester Brown, Mike Hudema, John Soykut. USA/Canada 2009. TBC mins.
Building on the current appetite for environmental films examining issues around natural resources and pollution, DIRTY OIL takes us deep behind the scenes into the strip-mined world of Alberta, Canada. Here the vast and toxic Tar Sands deposit supplies the U.S. with the majority of its oil. Through the eyes of scientists, ‘big oil’ officials, politicians, doctors, environmentalists and aboriginal citizens directly affected by ‘the largest industrial project on the planet today’, the filmmakers journey to both sides of the border to see the irreversible toll this ‘black gold rush’, fuelled by America’s addiction to oil, is taking on our planet.
The panel will include:
Paul Monaghan, Head of Ethics and Sustainable Development, The Co-operative (chair)
Leslie Iwerks, Director, DIRTY OIL (previous Academy Award winner)
George Poitras, Mikisew Cree Indigenous First Nation (Chief from June 1999 to June 2002)
Colin Butfield, Head of Campaigns, World Wildlife Fund-UK
