Screenings of film ‘Burned’ happening in region
A film that answers the question: Are Trees the New Coal?
A new film about the rise of the biomass industry is on tour now in Nova Scotia and screenings are taking place in this region.
The Osprey Arts Centre in Shelburne will screen the feature length documentary film Burned: Are Trees the New Coal? with special guests for a Q&A session afterwards on Monday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m.
This special screening of Burned is being presented at the Osprey by the Ecology Action Centre. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged at the door.
The film will also be screened at the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. The event is being presented by TREPA.
This documentary by Alan Dater and Lisa Merton is about the relatively new practice in forestry of cutting trees, chipping them and using them to generate electricity. The filmmakers say the film “probes the policy loopholes, huge subsidies and blatant green washing of the burgeoning biomass power industry.”
Burned examines the energy’s industry latest solution to climate change and how wood has become the answer to fossil fuels.
Audiences will meet the people, groups and corporations who are promoting the adoption of this so-called green solution and those fighting against it to protect their health, their forests, their communities and the climate.
Through interviews with activists, experts and citizens, along with verité-style footage shot across the U.S. and in the EU and UK, the film interweaves the science of climate change with other angles on this topic.
Audiences will learn about escalating energy-policy disputes, the dynamics of forest ecology, the biomass industry practices, the conflict between jobs and trees, and the actions of activists and citizens.
Woven together, the various stories present an intimate and visceral account of what is at this moment in time a critical, yet mostly unknown, national and international controversy with direct application to southwest Nova Scotia.
Alan Dater began his film career in New York City working with Robert De Niro and with Bob Elfstrom on a now classic documentary on Johnny Cash. His freelance experience includes many productions broadcast on major U.S. networks including Lifeline, an Emmy Award-winning medical documentary series for NBC, The Body Human, an Emmy Awardwinning medical series for CBS; and National Geographic Specials.
Together, Dater and Lisa Merton have made many acclaimed films. Among them is the film Taking Root, the story of Wangari Maathai, the founder of The Green Belt Movement of Kenya and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The film won many international awards including The Audience Award at Hot Docs and was broadcast on PBS/ Independent Lens in April 2009.
Other locations where the film is being screened include Tatamagouche, Halifax, Mahone Bay, Musquodoboit Harbour, Wolfville, Annapolis Royal and Burlington in Hants County.