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CHOKE POINT
The Inland Northwests fight against Exploding oil trains & fossil fuels.
Thank you for taking a closer look at our project, Raising public awareness about dangers to the community is everyone's responsibility.
This new documentary hits us close to home...quite literally.
This new documentary hits us close to home...quite literally.
Our story is about trains transporting coal and highly combustible crude from the Bakken oil fields, through the area between Sandpoint, Idaho, and Cheney, WA known as the 'choke point'. These trains travel over our aquifer and water resources, across unstable infrastructure and through the heart of our home; Spokane, WA.
This story is particularly frightening since these trains tend to blow up when there’s a derailment or due to equipment failure.
This story is particularly frightening since these trains tend to blow up when there’s a derailment or due to equipment failure.
COIL Forum, June 23rd @ Gonzaga University
The coal & oil forum was hosted by the Lands Council, the Sierra Club, the Spokane Riverkeeper, the Center for Justice and
Dancing Crow Media.
The excepts below were edited out of the larger event.
Dancing Crow Media.
The excepts below were edited out of the larger event.
What do you think would happen if a train, like the one that exploded in Quebec in 2014 were to explode in the middle of your town? How many would be killed? Injured? In Quebec they had 47 dead, and it could have been worse. How would it impact you? Who would bear the burden of the clean up and financial costs? Currently 25,000,000 people live within the blast zone (per the US Department of Transportation's Oil Train Derailment Evacuation Zone estimated to be within 1/2 mile of a track). 3,000,000 of those people reside in Washington state.
The part that we find troubling is that a large number of people don’t know anything about the added dangers to their communities. The two of us work within two blocks of the rail lines, well within what has been referred to as "The Blast Zone". I teach media studies at a downtown high school. That's about 2,000 children in a school, blocks from the rails. This is very personal for us and we care about our community just like you care about yours. Like Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington, these ‘blast zones’ exist in other communities all across the country.
The problem? We don't have enough capital to fully fund this on our own. We need your help to tell the story. We're asking you to challenge the system that's telling you and your family that your safety isn't as important as the product they're shipping. It's criminal that we have all been reduced to a commodity. Our question is what will you do to stand up and have a voice in this fight? A film can be a very emotional and consistent message. Make it entertaining and intelligent and people will share it. If people share it, it could spark some push back in communities, just like ours.
Find a way to support us. We're hopeful our story will also influence public policy and help to start a broader conversation about our dependence on fossil fuels. The important thing is that people will be informed on what's rolling through their neighborhoods and what they can do about it.
Help us take this issue to the people. Help us to tell this story. Send us an email if you want to support us.
Help us take this issue to the people. Help us to tell this story. Send us an email if you want to support us.
From Spokane with Love (2013)
This film was more a labor of love than any project we've ever worked on. It was the brain child of one of our very, very good friends, Shahrokh Nikfar, a local activist, humanitarian and radio show host who wanted to show the world that we are all brothers and sisters, living together on the earth.
The film documentary tells the story of Shahrokh and a group of five local Spokanites, (two of which were children) who traveled to Iran on a mission of humanity. The idea was to show the rest of the world that we are all just people living in a global neighborhood trying to live productive lives and that hatred and fear of one another is a product of propaganda and not reality. The project was filmed in Iran and Spokane, WA.
This documentary was an official selection of the 6th Annual 2014 Peace on Earth Film Festival in Chicago, IL.
The complete film is below
The film documentary tells the story of Shahrokh and a group of five local Spokanites, (two of which were children) who traveled to Iran on a mission of humanity. The idea was to show the rest of the world that we are all just people living in a global neighborhood trying to live productive lives and that hatred and fear of one another is a product of propaganda and not reality. The project was filmed in Iran and Spokane, WA.
This documentary was an official selection of the 6th Annual 2014 Peace on Earth Film Festival in Chicago, IL.
The complete film is below
From Spokane With Love (full film)
From Spokane With Love is an official selection of the
6th Annual 2014 Peace On Earth Film Festival in Chicago, Illinois,
March 6-9, 2014.
In the Shadow of Drums (2011)
This film was created for the Get Lit Festival, 2011, an annual literary and art event in Spokane WA. The film was a part of a project for the event, requested by the City of Spokane, which involved six other local visual artists and had subjects ranging from language to native storytelling.
Our team chose veterans issues as the subject of our film because we wanted to shed light on the reality of war and it's affects on the individual soldier.
There was also a physical art installation that reflected and represented this film after it debuted. The film and the physical installation premiered at the opening night of the exhibit at the Chase Art Gallery at Spokane City Hall, in March of 2011. The exhibit was displayed from March 1st to April 1st, 2011.
A short story about the relationship between a veteran soldier and a green recruit at the end of World War II. We wanted to show how war and violence effects the individual.
Duration: 14:52
Duration: 14:52
