A documentary examining the future of the energy sector across the globe and the people caught in the middle of the debate will be screened by Cinema Politica Ridge Meadows.
To The Ends Of The Earth, directed by David Lavallee, looks at how the recent push for tarsands bitumen and shale gas in Canada and the United States can lead to human and ecological devastation.
Narrated by British actress Emma Thompson, the film introduces the audience to the mayor of an Inuit village in Canada’s high Arctic who is concerned that seismic testing for oil in the ocean is blowing up the eardrums of the animals that the Inuit hunt to survive. There is also the environmental lawyer who goes on a journey to areas that produce energy for the tarsands of Alberta and a river conservationist in Utah who fights to protect the Colorado River from oil shale projects.
To The Ends Of The Earth has won the 2016 Official Selection of the DocUtah International Documentary Film Festival, the
Official Selection of Planet in Focus for 2016, and the Best International Environmental Film at Doc LA Film Festival in 2016.
Oosha Ramsoondar with Cinema Politica Ridge Meadows believes the documentary is relevant to Canadians because of the current leadership in the country.
“We have Prime Minister Trudeau who has bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline and is insisting that it be twinned,” said Ramsoondar.
And, she said, Premier John Horgan is going ahead with liquefied natural gas. Even though, she believes, the energy is not as clean as British Columbians have been told in the past.
“Because the extraction process is so energy intensive,” said Ramsoondar.
Ramsoondar also wanted to screen this documentary because of the 2018 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change whose authors said there is only 12 years left to be able to reverse or make any changes to the impact humankind will have on the world’s climate.
“If we don’t do anything to reduce our carbon emissions life on earth and civilization as we know it could be severely negatively impacted,” said Ramsoondar adding that this is a film people should see in Maple Ridge if only to have a discussion in the community as to what the future should look like.
The free screening will be starting a half an hour earlier than screenings in the past to allow for more discussion following the movie.
To The Ends Of The Earth will start at 6:30 p.m. on May 2 at Maple Ridge City Hall council chambers, 11995 Haney Place.
Doors will open at 6 p.m.
The documentary is rated 19-years or older.
Two special panelists will be taking part in the post-screening discussion.
Eoin Finn, an activist who is part of the environmental group My Sea To Sky, has spent the last four years researching safety, climate, environmental and economic aspects of B.C.’s proposed fossil-fuel projects. He is especially concerned with the proposal to build LNG plants in Howe Sound, Tilbury Island and Bamfield because, he believes, these would have very large LNG tankers cross busy ferry routes, pass close to major population centres and affect tourism and recreational uses of these waters.
The second panelist will be Angela Zimmerling, an environmentalist and artist from Abbotsford, who is passionate about protecting the environment of the Fraser Valley for future generations.
Former Green Party candidate Mike Gildersleeve will be emceeing the event.
Gerry Pinel, with the Golden Ears Transition Initiative and also the Affordable Community Environment Society, will also be at the screening.
For more information email ridgemeadows@cinemapolitica.org.
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