A locally filmed documentary opposing Enbridge Corporation's proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline will be premiered in Prince George this week.
Line In The Sand was produced and co-directed by Tomas Borsa and he says the film is "a candid glimpse at the context and consequences" of the pipeline proposal.
There will be two initial screenings to launch the film, both in Prince George. The first is Tuesday night at UNBC's Canfor Theatre and the second is Wednesday at CNC's Shaffer Theatre. Both begin at 6 p.m. and admission is by donation.
Following those showings, A Line In The Sand will also be screened in the northern communities of Quesnel, Tache, Fort St. James, Burns Lake, Old Hazelton, Unist'ot'en Camp, Terrace, Smithers, Kitimat, Skidegate, and Masset. A wider release of the film will follow later this spring.
"We wanted to premiere the film in northern BC as a condition of respect to those impacted by the project," said Borsa. "There's a tendency for journalists to 'parachute in', collect material, and then leave. We wanted to respect the intrinsic link between place and identity felt by many who live in the path of the pipeline by holding the first screenings in the regions in question."
It was a two-year filming process for Borsa and his production partner Jean-Philippe Marquis. The music is by Kerry Chambers. It was shot in high-definition and the duration is 78 minutes. The film is an end-product of an online information-gathering process you can see at www.lineinthesand.ca.
It was a travelogue of sorts, meeting people along the route of the proposed pipeline and getting their views on the record, especially those who were not involved in the environmental review hearings that led up to the federal Joint Review Panel imposing a menu of 209 conditions that must be met if the pipeline were to proceed.
Although Borsa said attempts were made to obtain balanced dialogue in the film, those who supported the pipeline were hard to come by and those opposed were more willing to go on camera.
"We've reached a seminal moment in Canadian history, in which falling oil prices, coinciding with a fall federal election, mean that energy politics will be at the forefront of conversation for quite some time," he said. "The Northern Gateway is the single most salient and significant marker of that trend in Canada."
