Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, January 6: A DIFFERENT AMERICAN DREAM
Director:
Simon Brook
Premiere:
Thessaloniki Doc 2016
Select Festivals:
Margaret Mead, Reykjavik, American Indian Film Festival, Red Nation
About:
Native Americans reflect on the impact of the oil industry on their land.
The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is located in the Badlands of North Dakota, site of the largest shale oil field on the continent. In the wake of its discovery, the oil industry descended on the community, enriching a handful in the short-term but harming thousands more, in the view of several tribe members featured in Brook’s doc. While it’s clear that the filmmakers are earnest about giving voice to and defending the rights of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes that call Fort Berthold home, the film is workmanlike at best in its construction, and lacks a compelling, forward momentum, choosing instead to introduce talking head after talking head voicing their sad but familiar complaints about the environmental and cultural damage being done by the oil industry.
what (not) to doc 