H2Oil On DVD

America’s biggest oil supplier has quickly become Canada’s oil sands. Located under Alberta’s pristine boreal forests, the process of oil sands extraction uses up to 4 barrels of fresh water to produce only one barrel of crude oil. It goes without saying that water — its depletion, exploitation, privatization and contamination — has become the most important issue to face humanity in this century. At the same time, the war for oil is well underway across the globe. A struggle is increasingly being fought between water and oil, not only over them. Alberta’s oil sands are at the centre of this tension. As the province rushes towards a large-scale extraction, the social, ecological and human impacts are hitting a crisis point. In only a few short years the continent will be a crisscross of pipelines, reaching from the arctic all the way to the southern US, leaving toxic water basins the size of Lake Ontario, and surface-mines as large as Florida. H2Oil follows a voyage of discovery, heartbreak and politicization in the stories of those attempting to defend water in Alberta against tar sands expansion. Unlikely alliances are built and lives are changed as they come up against the largest industrial project in human history. Ultimately we ask what is more important, oil or water? And what will be our response? With hope and courage H2Oil tells the story of one of the most significant, and destructive projects of our time.

Like many artistic ideas, the story of H2Oil developed through a very personal encounter. Five years ago our old friend Aaron Mathers left Montreal to build a log cabin just outside Hinton Alberta for the love of his life, Cathy Gratz. Last fall, Aaron and Cathy made a trip back to Montreal for the wedding of a close mutual friend of ours. Under the crisp autumn stars at the wedding reception, Cathy urgently described what was happening to Alberta, and to the fresh water spring that had been in her family for generations. The water that as Canadians we thought we had so much of, she explained, was under attack by the oil and gas companies right in her backyard. After a number of trips through Alberta to witness first-hand their story and the real impacts of the oil sands, my commitment to making this film became unshakable.

We are not alone. More and more people are realizing the urgency of protecting our water, and the people that depend upon it. It goes without saying that water – its depletion, exploitation, privatization and contamination – has become the most important issue to face humanity in this century. At the same time, the war for oil is well underway in the tar sands. A struggle is increasingly being fought between water and oil, not only over them. As our film bears witness, Alberta is at the centre of this tension. As the province rushes towards a large-scale extraction, the impacts on human and environmental health are hitting a crisis point. This is a personal film and it is a political film. It is a story about real people, not abstract impacts. It is a visual story, built on the sounds and the images that are quickly diminishing in Alberta. It is not with nostalgia, but with hope, that we will attempt to make this place, and the people within it, come alive.