[R-G] Locally produced doc aims to add to discourse on tar sands

[Anthony Fenton]

Locally produced doc aims to add to discourse on tar sands
Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta
http://www.vueweekly.com/article.php?id=8062
LEWIS KELLY / lewis at vueweekly.com

  ‘There isn’t a proper debate about [the tar sands],” says Niobe  
Thompson, researcher and producer for Tar Sands: The Selling of  
Alberta, a locally produced, CBC-funded documentary on the local and  
geopolitical consequences of the energy boom in Alberta.
“So few Albertans have any sense of the engine that’s driving our  
economy now—what it actually looks like, what it’s like to work up  
there,” he explains. “Some of our film is devoted to the families that  
are involved in that world. If that’s the one thing that we do with  
this film, I’m happy.”

Tar Sands does much, much more than that, though. Most of all, the  
documentary provides a sense of context—geopolitical, historical,  
social, you name it, it’s got it.

“If Americans were asked to industrialize a piece of American soil the  
size of Florida in order to secure their energy future, that would  
probably be a step too far,” says Thompson. “They’re very happy to  
have a neighbour who’s prepared to do that for them. America is our  
single and sole market for this product. All of our unconventional  
crude goes to American markets.”

But there are also more local factors contributing to the orgy of  
construction and development around Fort McMurray, says Thompson.

“We have a democracy under considerable stress here in Alberta,” he  
explains. “We have a large majority that’s just been brought in for  
whom one in five of the electorate voted for. And there are lots of  
reasons for that, but I think we have a system which supports the  
unconstrained development of the oil sands.”

This “unconstrained development” should be looked at more closely,  
says Thompson. “There absolutely is a better way. There are many ways  
in which it could be done better. There are really difficult questions  
we should be addressing which we’re not addressing to actually  
safeguard the survival of the oil sands.”

Alberta just had a provincial election in which the development of the  
tar sands was a central issue, so why release Tar Sands just after the  
campaign season instead of before Albertans went to the polls?

“We would have liked for the film to be broadcast the week before the  
election. This is, in a way, our contribution to the political  
discourse in the province, and it’s a pretty damn important one, I  
think.,” explains Thompson. “But the CBC’s policy is not to be seen to  
overtly meddle in provincial affairs. They were never going to show it  
before the election.”

As Tar Sands points out the problems surrounding the tar sands and in  
turn describes the forces surrounding them, viewers might get the  
impression that it’s a Michael Moore-style polemic dressed up as a  
documentary. Not so, says Thompson.

“I think we’ve been very careful with our facts. There’s no point in  
which we’re even lying by omission,” he says. “I think this is a  
fairly sober, realistic assessment of what’s happening here.

“I expect to be able to talk to everyone who participated in this film  
after it airs,” adds Thompson. “There’s this idea that if you want to  
be able to get in the door with oil companies and make films about  
what’s happening up there you have to be so servile. And that’s not  
what our public broadcaster is paid to do for us.”

Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta premieres on CBC TV on Thu, Mar 13  
(9 pm) and Sat, Mar 15 (10 pm). A public screening is also being  
planned for Edmonton in the spring. V


Thu, Mar 13 (9 pm) & Sat, Mar 15 (10 pm)
Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta
Directed by Tom Radford
Produced by Peter Raymont
Airing on CBC TV