Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands

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Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands
Film poster
Directed byPeter Mettler
Written byPeter Mettler
Produced bySandy Hunter
Laura Severinac
CinematographyRon Chapple
Edited byRoland Schlimme
Music byGabriel Scotti
Vincent Hänni
Production
company
Distributed byMongrel Media
Release date
  • September 2009 (2009-09) (TIFF)
Running time
40 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands is a 2009 Canadian short documentary film directed and written by Peter Mettler. Produced by Greenpeace Canada, the film uses aerial imagery to examine the Alberta oil sands and the environmental consequences of bitumen extraction. Its awards included wins at Festival dei Popoli and Visions du Réel, and a nomination for Best Short Documentary at the 30th Genie Awards. The film screened at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and later at festivals in Rotterdam, Montreal and Solothurn.[1][2]

Synopsis

The film provides an aerial view of the Alberta oil sands project and the environmental damage associated with it.[3] It notes that the oil sands form an oil reserve roughly the size of England. The film shows the industrial extraction of bitumen from beneath wilderness areas and examines its environmental consequences. It uses aerial imagery and sound to portray the landscape created by petroleum extraction.[1]

Production

Petropolis is the first film ever produced by Greenpeace Canada.[4]

Release

In 2009, the film was screened at festivals including the 15th Visions du Réel - Festival international in Nyon, the 34th Toronto International Film Festival,[5] the 38th Festival du Nouveau Cinéma Montréal and the 52nd International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. In 2010, it screened at festivals including the 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam and the 51st Festival dei Popoli Firenze. It later screened at the 49th Solothurner Filmtage in 2014.[1]

It had a limited theatrical run in January 2010.[6] It was released on DVD in April 2010.[7]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of nine critics' reviews are positive.[8]

Philip French of The Observer described the film as a "short, hallucinatory documentary" whose aerial images showed the damage caused by bitumen extraction.[9]

In Environmental History, the film was described as "visually stunning" and "much more art film than documentary". The reviewer wrote that its power lay in conveying the scale and scope of energy extraction, and that its near-exclusive use of aerial photography offered a view of mining and refining that was both "wondrous and grotesque".[10]

Awards and nominations

In 2009, the film won awards including the Premio per la Distribuzione at the Festival dei Popoli in Florence and the Prix du jeune public at Visions du Réel in Nyon.[1] It was later a Genie Award nominee for Best Short Documentary at the 30th Genie Awards in 2010.[2]

References

  1. "Petropolis". Swiss Films. Retrieved 6 May 2026.
  2. Melissa Leong, "Massacre story leads Genies; Quebec films dominate movie awards". Calgary Herald, March 2, 2010.
  3. Kevin Williamson, "Petropolis reveals apocalypse from the air". Toronto Sun, January 22, 2010.
  4. "Greenpeace film dives into the 'oily belly of the beast'; Director hopes to stir debate about oilsands". Calgary Herald, August 17, 2009.
  5. Bruce Kirkland, "Shorts make the Cut ; No other program at TIFF offers as much variety as Short Cuts Canada". Toronto Sun, September 11, 2009.
  6. Peter Howell, "The horror and the beauty of a man-made moonscape". Toronto Star, January 22, 2010.
  7. Carol Christian, "Film exploring oilsands from above released". Fort McMurray Today, April 6, 2010.
  8. "Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
  9. French, Philip (16 May 2010). "Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands". Retrieved 6 May 2026 – via The Guardian.
  10. "Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands". Environmental History. 16 (3): 542. July 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2026.