Hello friends!
As promised, I went to see the film How to Blow Up a Pipeline this weekend. I thought I'd share some of my initial impressions, because the movie had so many themes that interest me as a journalist and filmmaker and author. Reconsidering property rights, for one. How to tell effective stories about climate change. The infrastructure of energy production as a visual shorthand for symbols of oppression. I could go on and on.
Scenes early in the film show the oil and gas infrastructure of Parshall, North Dakota, a town within the boundaries of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. I haven't spent much time in Parshall, but I know the region well and have driven through there many times. The topography and the colors of the snow-covered, stubbled fields were immediately familiar to me.
I'll focus on the sequence in North Dakota, because it's what I kno…