The film had its Ontario broadcast premiere on Januon TVOntario. Oil Sands Karaoke had its television broadcast premiere on on Knowledge Network. The film also screened at the Calgary International Film Festival, Yorkton Film Festival, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, and Available Light Film Festival and had a limited theatrical run in Fort McMurray, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Regina. The Western Canadian premiere took place at The Vancouver International Film Festival on October 4, 2013. Oil Sands Karaoke had its world premiere on Apat Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto. Now he works as a haul truck driver, a job lucrative enough to help him dig himself out of debt. His partner turned out to be unfaithful and they separated, and company layoffs cost him his previous job. While working with his father, he incurred debt supporting a girlfriend with children. Jason Sauchuk is a soft-spoken fan of videogames who trained as a computer programmer, but joined his father in the heavy equipment industry after school. He now sings in the local karaoke scene for fun. He stopped performing and moved to Fort McMurray after a violent conflict with a partner's ex-boyfriend. When he was older, he recorded in a basement studio, and eventually began performing opening acts for singers such as Tone Loc. As a child, Chad's religious family prompted him to sing in their church choir. A talented entertainer, he dreams of becoming a full-time singer but realizes that he has to make a secure living somehow. Ĭhad Ellis works in the Suncor plant as a scaffolder. Massey believes he was the first gay man to come out in blue-collar Fort McMurray, and his company now sponsors multiple charitable programs, including a drag show, to combat bullying and homophobia. Iceis came to life as part of Massey's recovery from dissociative post-traumatic stress disorder, which he suffered due to violence and abuse in his childhood and teens. Iceis Rain is Massey's alter-ego, a drag queen in thigh-high boots who belts out a memorable cover of " Purple Rain". Massey Whiteknife is a First Nations entrepreneur who owns the multimillion-dollar ICEIS group of companies in Alberta. She credits her truck driving job with giving her life stability, although she finds Fort McMurray to be a lonely place. However, Brandy's father died when she was only seven which began a long period of struggle and instability for her and her mother. When Brandy was young, she lived on a first nations reserve with her parents, developing a love of singing from listening to her father play guitar.
Dan says he is grateful for all the financial and emotional support his friends and family gave him while he worked on his music, and part of the reason he works a lucrative oil sands job is to pay them back.īrandy Willier is another haul truck operator from idyllic High Prairie, Alberta. Prior to working in the oil sands, Dan pursued a career as a country singer, but family and financial obligations made him give up on his recording dreams. The mining truck that he drives, a Caterpillar 797, is one of the biggest motorized vehicles ever invented and can hold up to 500 tons of bitumen-laced dirt. We need to talk about this stuff, but we should maybe try to be a bit more polite with each other." Featured characters ĭan Debrabandre works as a haul truck driver. "There's so much shouting that we don't talk," he says. All feel that singing helps relieve the stress of long hours working heavy equipment, or the loneliness of living in a remote industrial town.ĭirector Wilkinson believes the vicious tone of the debate over the oil sands has precluded any meaningful discussion. Others say they are aware of the destructive impact that the oil industry has on the environment, but without the lucrative salaries available from the oil companies, their debts and financial obligations would be too much to bear. Some are dismissive of the opinions of "environmentalists".
Oil Sands Karaoke focuses on the people who live and work around Alberta's oil sands project, whose voices are rarely heard in the debates about the economic value and environmental cost of the project.Īs the five featured workers progress through the stages of the karaoke contest, singing pop favourites from Creedence Clearwater Revival to Britney Spears, they explain through interviews how and why they came to work in the oil industry, and how it has impacted their lives.
0 kommentar(er)
