Over the past decade I’ve made a number of short films about the Unist’ot’en, because I believe in their struggle and also because out of all the climate activism I’ve seen in Turtle Island, theirs has the potential to block the largest chunk of greenhouse gasses coming out of Canada’s tar sands and fracked gas projects. This is because their camp stands in the way of a proposed “energy corridor” that would bring fossil fuels via multiple pipelines, to ports in the Pacific for export to Asian markets.
This past year has been pretty devastating for the camp as Canadian courts sided with TransCanada in their quest to build the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, and used Canadian federal cops to clear the path, for workers to come into their territory and start clear cutting the right of way. So a few of us filmmakers got together to make a film to help get the word out about what’s been happening in the territory, to help raise awareness, raise funds and encourage people to go there and physically support them.
Frank Lopez