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Between Midnight and the Rooster's Crow cover image

Between Midnight and the Rooster's Crow 2005

Highly Recommended

Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films, 32 Court St., 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 800-876-1710
Produced by Rocinante Productions and Nadja Drost
Directed by Nadja Drost
VHS, color, 66 min.



Sr. High - Adult
Area Studies, Canadian Studies, Bioethics, Economics, Environmental Studies, Human Rights, International Relations, South American Studies

Date Entered: 10/13/2005

Reviewed by Brad Eden, Ph.D., Head, Web and Digitization Services, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

This video examines how oil drives both companies and countries to ignore human rights, as well as legal, moral, and ethical issues in the race to make money off the high demand for fossil fuels. Nadja Drost, a Canadian, examines the business practices and operations of EnCana, a large Canadian oil company that is working with the country of Ecuador to drill and export Ecuadorian oil. The focus of the film is on the construction of a large pipeline through the Amazon rain forest, over many privately-held housing lands and towns, to the Ecuadorian coast.

Examples of human rights abuses, environmental contamination, unsafe construction, toxic waste deposits, and health issues by both EnCana and the Ecuadorian government are detailed. Drost interviews various communities, farmers, environmental activists, and even government officials regarding EnCana's abuse of these issues, to no avail. Graphic video of environmental contamination and toxic waste deposits are shown, as well as unsafe construction areas of the pipeline that run through numerous earthquake-prone and even volcano-prone areas.

This film has been shown at numerous film festivals, including the Ecofilms Environmental Film Festival, DOXA Vancouver Film Festival, and the Cine Las Americas Film Festival. It was named Best Canadian Documentary by the 2005 Hot Docs Documentary Festival as well. It is a very well-documented and photographed documentary by one determined filmmaker trying to get answers to questions, and examining various environmental and ethical issues related to Third World economic development.