Dirty Oil

[milkchocmonkey]

We have just been to the Greenwich Picturehouse to exchange our printout for tickets. It's in screen 3 and it is SEATED so if you want good seats come early or exchange printouts before tomorrow night. We got good seats in the back but the ones next to us were already taken, I suspect by people who actually pa*d for them. Also, the start time on the tickets is 6.30pm, they will apparently let people in from 6.15pm.

Btw, I will release some tickets forEmpire Leicester Square into the wild in a minute if you want to snap them up.

hey beate, did u have you have to show ur co-op membership card?

[Beate]

Not as such but I had a printout with my membership number tacked to the ticket voucher. It's always the same there. People at the till haven't got a clue so they call the manager who comes down with pre-printed tickets. He wasn't interested in any card though, just handed the tickets over.

[AYBG]

To see a trailer or rate this film, please click here »




Directed by Leslie Iwerks.
Starring: Neve Campbell (narrator), Residents and workers from Alberta.

Plot: Deep behind-the-scenes into the strip-mined world of Alberta, Canada, where 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 impacted by 'the largest industrial project on the planet today,' the filmmakers journey to both sides of the border to see the emotional and irreversible toll this 'black gold rush' fueled by America's addiction to oil is taking on our planet.

IMDB

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[Beate]

No lovely freebie food and drink here (am jealous, bevvy!) They didn't let us into the screen until 6.25pm and then we had to wait another 15 minutes until the satellite connection was restored and we could listen to a rambling preachy speech by some Co-op guy. He tried to get every cinema to cheer when he called its name but people were lazy I guess, LOL. Heard a cheer from Brighton, was that you, bevvy? He said you would be able to text in questions at the end and someone would answer them, he seemed quite pleased by modern technology. Anyway, when he finally left the stage, Neve Campbell came on and said a few teary words - she was apparently narrating the whole documentary but she only got a few words in edgeways at the beginning and end of the film.

What I hadn't known is that the satellite link was coming from the Barbican cinema which wasn't on the list of cinemas you could get tickets for so I imagine they all had to p*y! The last 4 rows at the back of the PH Greenwich were completely full but it went downhill from there on and there weren't all that many people sitting further towards the front. I checked earlier and there were 8 tickets left for Greenwich Picturehouse but they must have kept some back hoping to sell them!

Anyway, long story short, I didn't like it. I didn't dislike the subject matter, it's all worthwhile and that, I just didn't think the documentary was particularly good. I found it boring and preachy, with too much swelling music in the background. I have seen very good, hard-hitting documentaries in the past like for example Food Inc., but this one just didn't grab me. It was simply too much talking. The only thing that moved me was the patchwork quilt the community gave to their doctor as a leaving present when he was basically hounded out by the Government for asking too many questions about the high sickness rate.

So we didn't stay for the Q&A. Sorry to everyone who liked it.

5/10

[superhero]

I enjoyed the first 10 minutes of it, as I knew nothing about tar sands and the oil rich nature of Alberta, Canada, but it rapidly went downhill from there. It was oh so repetitive, I hate documentaries that don't go anyway or don't have anything new to say. At one point I thought I was watching a repeat of Erin Brockovich with a town hall meeting and people complaining about sickness etc. Incredibly tedious, 2/10 for me and I am sorry for the people who liked it too...

[Beate]

Yes, it was very repetitive. And I swear, until I saw it written somewhere, I was wondering why they were all talking so much about Tarzans!

[superhero]

hahaha me too Beate!

[alythonian]

I saw this in Edinburgh tonight (yes they were selling tickets and most folk there seemed to have pa*d) and it was about 70% full.

We did cheer Beate, but i guess the technology wasn't quite as good as the man from the Co-op thought, or his renewable energy sourced power pack failed! (sorry!!)

I was aware of the tar sands in Canada from info here in the UK and what I heard on TV when I was in Canada last year. It is a plight for the people and a blight on the land and I was interested to hear what the documentay had to say.

I have to confess my disappointment. I expected something harder and edgier; this was a bit wishy washy and apologestic and no where near hard hotting enough to make the kind of impact that it wants to.

I gather from the Q&A at the end it's an elongation of an earlier short documentary and maybe that's the problem with it. It wavered from the main point in part rather than hammering home its cause like some good documentaries I've seen eg the McLibel film.

It tried to cram in things like renewable energy but even the stats given there were only in relation to electricity and given we were talking here in the large part about barrels of crude oil, it just seemed to be skirting that point.

The plight of the native creeds and that of the land is terrible and I wish the film had been good enough to make a difference; I just don't think it was good enough to do that.

[Preston1990]

I went to see this at the Tyneside Cinema this evening. I’ve got to be honest, if I had not been desperately trying to increase my score of free films in 2010 I probably wouldn’t even have bothered attending. After all, who would want to waste their time seeing a “dry as sticks”, “we’ve heard it all before”, “anti government”, “anti rich major corporation” diatribe like this one was undoubtedly going to be, Yes, are you with me?

It was my first time at this particular cinema, and I must say I was impressed with it – nice clean environment, great seats and very polite helpful staff. Why, they even put on free pre screening teas, coffees, choc chip biscuits and brownies. Quite yummy! - I could get used to this kind of treatment (are you listening Odeon?)

There were some handouts and literature to support the film, which I glanced at before the satellite link introduction and film proper started. I even remarked to my wife “There ain’t going to be a lot of laughs in this one Dear!” before I sat back and wondered how long the next hour and 17 minutes would seem. Mentally I resolved to make good our escape before the post screening discussions.

The film started and I was literally captivated. Yes it was an anti pollution, anti Uncaring Government and anti greedy Oil Corporation film – but My God there is an important issue behind this. And not just a local environmental one regarding the pollution, which was adversely effecting the environment and health of the indigenous communities and wildlife around the Tar Sands area. But there are aspects of the problem which apparently could cause catastrophic climate change affecting the whole planet by tipping us towards unstoppable irreversible climate change through the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

You probably think that sounds alarmist global warming type tosh but I urge everyone who cares about the future lives of their children and grandchildren to at least go and see this film and judge for yourselves.

A frightening, thought provoking and unpalatable film in many ways? – Yes.

But boring? - I did not think so!!

And yes ….. I even stayed for the post screening discussion.

If you’ve made it through this far, lol – you may like to check out the further info I’m told is available at http://www.toxicfuels.com

I notice there are another 2 films in this series - I wonder if there will be free screenings for these too.


……..and now breathe!! Rant over.


8 out of 10 for me on this one.

[superhero]

I was stupidly telling my friend yesterday when Moon started showing at the beginning, oh oh oh they are doing a trailer for Dirty Oil!