Educational Media Reviews Online

After the Spill is a followup to the 2010 documentary SoLa: South Louisiana Water Stories. It focuses on the massive 2010 British Petroleum (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The spill followed the explosion and fire on an offshore oil rig that killed 11 and released millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Like its predecessor, After the Spill includes interviews with Louisiana experts with archival and current still images and video to set the event in context. This is an advocacy film, depicting BP and its executives as motivated by greed and anxious to put the event in the past. Narration is by Melissa Leo, known for the New Orleans-based series Treme, with ominous music by Sonny Landreth, former guitarist with BeauSoleil, the Cajun supergroup. The film opens with Keith Jones, father of Gordon Jones, who died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion, testifying before somber-looking members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. We also hear from Louisianans James Carville, Nick Spitzer, John Barry, Gen. Russell Honoré, and others directly affected by the spill. Nervous-looking BP executives also appear including Tony Hayward, former head of BP.

The film works to refute the usual argument that Louisiana can't afford to hurt oil companies because the state makes its living from their activities, no matter how dangerous or destructive. The industry frames the issue as jobs versus the environment, but safety and profits are not mutually exclusive. Carville suggests Louisiana can even profit by developing and selling technology to manage water and wetlands soundly.

One narrative thread covers an unprecedented federal lawsuit filed by a parish (county) levee management agency against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies asking damages for land loss. The state legislature and then-Governor Jindal demanded that suit be withdrawn and removed their authority to sue. Eventually, the suit was dismissed by a federal judge, a former oil company employee.

There are many disheartening views of oil-covered soil and plants. The spill is part of Louisiana's ongoing wetlands loss, attributed to hurricanes, levees, and petroleum company access canals. The film claims that petroleum company promises of full economic and environmental remediation, required by state law, have knowingly gone unfulfilled, leaving behind environmental, economic, cultural, medical, and psychological damage. BP's television ads attempt to convince the public that recovery has been strong and quick, with minimal damage to the coast, the Gulf, and those who work and live in the affected areas. BP set up a fund to compensate those affected, but it has been mired in controversy. This film ends on a note of cautious optimism, though much work and money are required to reverse the current situation.