Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands

After seeing a number of films which attempted to depict otherworldly landscapes, it took a documentary to capture a reality that transcended any imagined locations.

Peter Mettler is a Canadian filmmaker with a well-deserved reputation for making thoughtful films with commanding visuals (his previous work includes "Visions of Light" and "Gambling, Gods and LSD").

Petropolis is a short (43-minute) aerial trip across the Alberta Tar Sands, starting in the nearby boreal forests and proceeding to the alien landscapes of the Tar Sands. Aside from some text at the beginning and a short piece of voiceover at the end, the only sound is an electro-acoustic score that hovers on the edge of being audible.

The images are enough. Shot from a helicopter hovering over the terrain, the scale of the devastation of the open-pit mining and the tailing ponds is incomprehensible (in fact the only way to establish scale is through the occasional shot of a car or truck; there is only one image of a man outside a vehicle, on the top of a gigantic sulphur platform).

Given the length, a theatrical run seems doubtful, although I expect that it will receive some promotion from Greenpeace (it was commissioned by them).

There is also a companion web site at http://www.petropolis-film.com.
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