Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands (2009)
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Critic Reviews for Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands
All Critics (8) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (7) | Rotten (1)
The film's power is the contemplative space crafted by Mettler and his collaborators.
Peter Mettler, its director, is trying to show how the second largest oil reserve in the world, which emits more CO2 each day than all the vehicles in Canada, has despoiled a track of the boreal forest as big as England.
Sumptuous cinematography gives this documentary an artistic feel that makes it almost hypnotic as mainly aerial cameras explore the world's second biggest oil reserve. But even with minimal text, it still makes its point with elegant simplicity.
Little narration is needed: sweeping shots of the truly overwhelming natural terrain are as awesome as anything in Avatar.
This timely oil industry documentary from Greenpeace is only 43 minutes long, but stunning, fugue-like aerial photography justifies its cinema release.
Unfortunately, the pictures have the same effect as the coffee table book The Earth From The Air in which even sewerage treatment plants form fascinating patterns when viewed from on high.
Audience Reviews for Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands
You get what you expect to see in flying over oil pits but then you get more...strange colours and shapes that you didn't anticipate all in an environment that seems the very opposite of environment. Not Bad China as in Manufactured Landscapes. Bad Canada. Profit driven to the point of destroying what we claim to be most proud of.
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