Media for social change

To The Tar Sands follows a group of nineteen young environmentalists as they cycle over 1300 kilometres northbound across Alberta to witness the impacts of the tar sands boom firsthand. They ask farmers, moms, an urban planner, oil industry workers, the chief of a First Nations community, and others “How has the tar sands boom affected you?”

As the kilometers click away, the cyclists seek strategies for an economic future for Alberta that does not exacerbate the planet’s climate problems. Issues of oil development raise ethical questions that only become more difficult to answer as the cyclists learn from locals. With their greasy bike chains, even the cyclists have oil on their hands.

Jodie Martinson, a native Calgarian, holds a BA in Environment from the McGill School of Environment, studied Producing and Directing at the Berkeley Digital Film Institute in California, and is currently pursuing a Masters of Journalism at the University of British Columbia. “To The Tar Sands,” her first feature-length documentary, was made off the back of her bicycle as a testament to low-budget storytelling for social change.