Fractured Land – The Documentary

A new generation of indigenous leaders is coming to the fore in Canada, and in other areas of the world, people like Caleb Behn.

All Caleb ever wanted was to teach his future kids to hunt in the traditional lands of his people, according to the makers of Fractured Land. Now he’s entangled in a global struggle against the multi-billion-dollar oil and gas industry and the government interests that protect it.

Fractured Land is a documentary that tells the story of young Dene warrior from northeastern British Columbia, Canada, taking on Big Oil and Gas to protect his land and people from the ravages of neocolonialism – all the while learning to accept the role he was born for, as one of Canada’s next generation of leaders.

The heart of the story

At issue is the future of the land in British Columbia, Canada, and the oil and gas industry’s heavy development of the land.

The health and environmental impacts of fracking – including asthma, cancer and earthquakes – are not insignificant, yet in northeastern BC, where Caleb and his people have been living off the land for hundreds of years, the world’s largest fracking operations charge ahead with little oversight.

In oil and gas communities, health problems run rampant. Like many others from his region, Caleb himself was born with a birth defect forcing him to spend many pain-plagued years under the surgeon’s knife, his face cut, lips sewn together, metal plates pinned to his skull.

As the film makers say, it is not only individuals who suffer. Entire cultures – already weakened by reduced habitat for hunting, the loss of languages in residential schools, drugs, sexual abuse, alcohol and poor health care – now confront a toxic industry. Abuse of the land and abuse of the people are different faces of the same new colonialism.

Caleb and his Nation are joining a new dialogue on sustainable, equitable energy development. Documenting this journey, Fractured Land filmmakers Fiona Rayher and Damien Gillis have been following Caleb for the past two years.

Call for funds

With another year of production still to go, the filmmakers are now raising funds to finish the film while building on the existing solidarity movement to support the work native and non-native people are doing across Canada to bring justice to the land and protect people from poisoned water, soil and air.

Check out Fractured Land for more details and to see how you can help

(Photo: Zack Emree/FracturedLand.com)