Everyday Activist - Guardians of Eternity (MLJFF 2016)

Posted on Thursday, November 17, 2016 at 06:00 PM

Guardians of Eternity (MLJFF 2016)

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

Resource extraction from the earth is dirty business. The worst has to be gold mining because the slag left behind from the gold processing is toxic. This is what has happened in Yellowknife. Tonnes of toxic is waste has been left behind well after the Giant Gold mine closed and as usual taxpayers are left with the bill and the local people are left with the risk of poisoning. The solution the government has implemented requires plenty of maintenance creating the problem of how to pass the information onto future generations.

Oral traditions seem to last the longest, even in a world full of technology. The Dene people, the guardians of this toxic waste for essentially eternity, feel that passing down modern legends will be the best way those future generations will understand what has happened to the land and what needs to be done to protect it. The documentary shows the scope of the current technology used to keep the toxic waste under control. For someone who spends a lot of time in northern Canada, I never imagined such an undertaking existed.

The scale of the damage is incredible. Governments need to have companies submit remediation and waste disposal plans with every application for resource extraction and have the presence to enforce this onto the companies. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill and local environments shouldn’t be poisoned when corporations can just take their money and run. With this film I hope people become more aware of the damages resource extraction causes and want to hold companies liable for their actions.

Guardians of Eternity will screen as part of the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival 2016 on Sunday November 20th at 2:30 pm at the River Park Auditorium.

Director France Benoit will be present to speak about her film. She is a policy advisor turned filmmaker who then decided to become a farmer. After a feature documentary, she switched to short films and recently completed her first short fiction. France continues to live self-sufficiently in the boreal forest outside of Yellowknife, pumping her water from the lake, heating her home from wood and drawing her energy from the sun.

Calgary Showtimes: Marda Loop Justice Film Festival 2016 > | Guardians of Eternity >