director leslie iwerks
Interview with Leslie Iwerks
by Christine Gerani
During the 17th annual Hamptons International Film Festival I had the honor to interview Academy Award® Nominated Director Leslie Iwerks. Leslie Iwerks and Babelgum Productions just finished a film called Dirty Oil. Here is some information about the film:
Narrated by Canadian actress and environmentalist Neve Campbell this beautifully photographed and much anticipated feature documentary from Academy Award® Nominated director Leslie Iwerks goes deep behind-the-scenes into the strip-mined world of Northern Alberta, Canada, where the vast and toxic oil sands deposit supplies the U.S. with the majority of its oil. Told through the eyes of scientists, “big oil” officials, politicians, doctors, environmentalists, and aboriginal citizens directly effected by “the largest industrial project on the planet today”, the filmmakers journey to both sides of the border to uncover the emotional and irreversible toll this “black gold rush” fueled by America’s addiction to oil is taking on our planet. The film is produced by Alberta born and Emmy Award winning producer Philip Alberstat, and co-produced by Canadians, Mark Cranwell and Randy Bradshaw.
Christine – The average American probably doesn’t know very much about where our oil comes from, such as, that Canada is a major supplier of our oil and how the oil is extracted. How did you learn about the dangers of sand oil?
Leslie – Well I didn’t know much about it myself until the project was introduced to me being a potential director. I started researching and had no idea that for the last 7 years America has gotten the majority of its oil from Canada. To go up there and see it first hand and see the amazing amount of industry that’s going on, you see how big the industry is in Alberta, is pretty sobering.
Christine – You filmed in Alberta Canada, the leader in Sand Oil extraction, how did the government and the oil companies treat you?
Leslie – They ignored us, for the most part. We got one interview with the Minister of Energy which was great. The Minister of Health and the Minister of Environment declined interviews. They know there are a lot of documentarians trying to tackle this issue so they’re just going to ignore it.
Christine – The local Alberta Aborigines that live in areas where this oil is produced are suffering because of heavy pollution in the air and water. Do you think they have grounds for a class action suit?
Leslie – It seemed to me that they were already on that path, towards that. I don’t know the details on that actually on where it stands right now. I heard and I’ve seen headlines on Fort Chipewyan trying to sue the Alberta government, however I don’t know specifics on where it stands at this moment. It’s tough because, I think it was the cancer board, went back and spent a year diagnosing and researching and they did find that there were 30% higher rates of cancer recently than they found from the previous study. Among them are rare cancers. Further studies need to be done, however at this point there’s no pending studies on the books. Cholangiocarcinoma was one of the cancers that I heard about. It’s kind of strange that they find 30% higher rates of cancer but they’re not doing anything more to figure it out. Like test the waters. Maybe they are but they probably need to do a little more research as to where it stands right now and what they’re doing about it, but it’s hard to get information.
Christine – The Health Problems of the people of Fort Chipewyan is proof of toxic waters and air. Before Sand Oil, cancer barely existed, now of course it’s rampant. Why do you think they stay?
Leslie – It’s been their livelihood. Imagine, for generation after generation you were from this area and you didn’t want to leave and all of a sudden some industry comes into your neck of the woods and starts booting you out. You have a place there, a history there it’s your people. This is an Aboriginal society that lived off the land that time began and this is the oldest settlement, the oldest aboriginal community in Alberta. So people have said why don’t they just move, well, why don’t you just move? It’s just not that easy to ask people to leave when industry comes in and starts ruining everything.
Christine – Were the people afraid to talk fearing government repercussions?
Leslie – No they actually wanted to talk. They needed to be heard. Their story needs to be told.
Christine – The Obama Administration seems to be one of the few governments that see the need for Greener polices to reduce our dependency on oil. Do you see the Alberta Government taking swift action now that your film is being introduced to the masses?
Leslie – I still feel like they are very protective of it, and in all fairness, Obama is supporting the oil sands now. He wasn’t for a while, he was on the fence and they were very concerned while filming this film about which direction is he going to take. He wasn’t really supportive of it when he was a Senator in Chicago primarily because he was dealing with all the oil refineries taking in all these oil sands in the mid-west. The dumping and polluting that they were attempting to do, he was fighting that, so he knew that this was a ‘dirty oil’ and that things needed to shift and he knew that it was a huge contributor to green house gases. Now he’s saying we need this oil but we all have to get together to figure out the emissions issue and we have to curb these emissions and we have to put all our energy towards carbon capture storage and other technologies that will inhibit, if not limit significantly, the emissions that are getting out there now. So that’s his stance, how soon and how effective that will be is yet to be told, yet to be seen.
Christine – Well given the fact that’s he’s been in office only nine months, hopefully, as time goes on and more research is done and more facts come in, hopefully they will change their mind a little bit more. As you said if they came into my town I would be pissed off too. Until it happens to you does anybody do anything? In the film I was blown away when you show a Pearl Jam concert and Eddie Vedder addresses the crowd about the fact that BP was dumping toxins in Lake Michigan and that starts a huge chant. What part of the film that was most compelling for you?
Leslie – Probably towards the end of that section when you get to see both sides of the border. You just experienced the Canadian side and now you’ve experience the US side. When Henry Henderson says with both sides you’re dealing with greed. You’re dealing with big people picking on small people who don’t have the capacity to take care of themselves. To me that’s a very emotional reality and he started actually started to tear up when he said that, because he could feel it. Also I think at the end with Lester Brown talking about World War Two. He starts to tear up talking about what we could be doing if we just got around this whole thought process like they did in WW2…mobilizing society to say let’s surpass our goals of creating planes and ships and cargos. We should put that same mentality towards green energy and saving our planet. If we could do it then, we can do it now.
Christine – Neve Campbell narrates the film, can you tell why she decided to work on the film?
Leslie – She’s been an activist in oil sands. And I just thought we need to get her. It was kind of common sense, a no-brainer. We did Downstream. I wanted to see if Neve would put a quote on her website about the movie which she kindly did. Then when we finished the feature I hadn’t thought about the narrator. I thought I could use limited text to get the point across. After a number of test screenings people were saying it just feels like it needs a narrator.
Christine – How long did it take for you to film?
Leslie – About a year and a half to make the whole thing. We started early 2008. Then we got the short done in late October 2008. So we started and finished the short in 2008, got short-listed for the Oscar, and then when that whole thing was done, I jumped on to the feature. So really by January of this year the feature started up. That took additional shooting in the Great Lakes and Indiana. I think we went up several times this year to Canada and Indiana.
Christine – Where are you off to next to promote Dirty Oil?
Leslie – We just finished the film, last week. We got this in just in the nick of time to show it and I had to go back on the HD Master and do a few tweaks, stuff for our DVD’s. So I’m doing publicity and stuff for Bablegum right now. I’m gearing up for a Canadian theatrical distribution as well as the UK. So I think I’ll be gearing towards a multi city tour in both of these countries in January.
Christine- The film was amazing Leslie, thank you so much for talking with Spot on Long Island.
Leslie Iwerks (writer/director) is an Oscar® and Emmy Award Nominated director and producer, and comes from a two time Oscar® winning family. Her short documentary, “Recycled Life,” was nominated for an Academy Award® in 2006 and has won nine top film festival awards. Leslie directed, photographed and edited the documentary, and along with her producing partner, Mike Glad, chronicled the thousands of people who have been living and working in the largest and most toxic landfill in Central America over the last sixty years – the Guatemala City garbage dump. Narrated by Edward James Olmos, the film had its television premiere on HBO’s Cinemax Channel in August, 2007. Her accompanying short film called “A Safe Passage-A Tribute to Hanley Denning” aired on HBO-On-Demand and has helped garner over $3 million worth of individual financial contributions to the children and families living in the Guatemala City Garbage Dump. (www.recycledlifedoc.com)
To read more about Leslie Iwerks please visit her website www.LeslieIwerks.com
