WHITE WATER, BLACK GOLD

by David Lavallée
An investigation about the inextricable link between water and oil in our modern world.
2011  ·  1h5m  ·  Canada
English
About the Film

WHITE WATER, BLACK GOLD is an investigative point-of view documentary that follows David Lavallée on his three-year journey across western Canada in search of answers about the activities of the world’s thirstiest oil industry: the tar sands.

As a mountaineer and hiking guide, David is on the front lines of climate change. Over the past 15 years he has worked in the Columbia ice-fields of the Canadian Rockies, and has noticed profound changes in the mountains: climate change is rendering these landscapes unrecognizable.

When David discovers that his province is ramping up growth in an extremely water intensive industry downstream of his beloved ice-fields, he is surprised he knows so little about this industry. This necessitates a journey: from ice-fields … to oilfields.

In the course of his journey he makes many discoveries: new science shows that water resources in an era of climate change will be increasingly scarce (putting this industry at risk); first nations people living downstream are contracting bizarre cancers; the upgrading of this oil threatens multiple river systems across Canada and the tailings ponds containing the waste by-products of the process threaten to befoul the third largest watershed in the world. Additionally, a planned pipeline across British Columbia brings fresh threats to BC Rivers and the Pacific Ocean.

WHITE WATER, BLACK GOLD is a sober look at the untold costs (to water and people) associated with developing the second largest deposit of oil in the world.

Upcoming Screenings

Stay tuned for upcoming screenings!

Festivals and Awards
2012
New Westminster Doc Fest, BC, Official Selection
2012
Rock Island Enviro Film Festival, Illinois, Official Selection
2012
Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival, Official Selection
2011
Banff Mountain Film Fest, BC, Official Selection
2011
Planet In Focus Film Festival, Toronto, Official Selection
In the Press
Review
Editor
Nancy Rosenblum
Co-director
Producer
David Lavallee
Sound Editor
Luke Martin
Researcher
Soundtrack Composer
John Tucker-Havelock
Translator
Writer
About the Director

David Lavallée

David Lavallee

Producer/Director David Lavallee wears a great many different hats. He is a former school teacher, a hiking guide, and a grad student in psychology. More recently, he has become a documentary film producer and host. But above all he is a concerned citizen.
In late 2006, in response to what he saw as a lack of action on the part of society in response to climate change and responsible water management, he conceptualized the documentary film ‘White Water, Black Gold”.
In 2008, he appeared in a Much Music documentary with the rock band SUM 41 and Much Music VJ Hannah Simone.
David is a graduate of the Gulf Islands Film and Television School and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology’s Producer Emergence Program.
He lives in Nelson, B.C., where the powder is deep and the mountains are high.

 

Share

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Tumblr
StumbleUpon
Pocket
Telegram
Email