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The Story
In 2005, several men from Rossport, Ireland were sent to jail for 94 days as a consequence of not allowing Shell Oil to put a gas pipeline through their land.
In part 2 of his Global Economic Documentary Series, filmmaker Jim Kerns goes to Rossport - a remote town in the northwest of Ireland - to examine this conflict and the socio-economic implications involved. Kerns speaks with members of the community, journalists, sociologists, and Shell representatives in an attempt to understand the factors that led up to the jailing as well as to decipher the impact of a pipeline and gas-processing terminal on a once quiet community.
“Destination: Rossport, Ireland” examines how a big oil company is impacting the culture of the community and how the idea of “progress and development” in the desolate West is coming into direct conflict with health and safety concerns for an entrenched group of locals.
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The Global Economic Documentary Series:
"Destination: Rossport, Ireland is the second film of the three-part series focusing on how global economic forces impact local communities. In 2004, Jim Kerns went to Bangalore, India ("Destination: Bangalore") to investigate the social impact outsourcing has had on that city. "Destination: Bangalore" has played at film festivals in the US and Europe and is currently part of numerous high school and university class curriculums in the U.S., Canada and Australia and dozens of library collections, including the New York Public Library and the Duke University library. The video-on-demand service, Jaman.com, named "Destination: Bangalore" one of its top films of 2007.
Kerns' films are entirely self-financed – free from contributions from philanthropic or special-interest groups – and made for less than $25,000. |
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*Music in trailer
Eanaír”, performed by Lúnasa
(p) 2003 Lúnasa
From the Compass Records release Lúnasa (COM-CD-4317)
www.compassrecords.com |
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"Kerns masterfully documents the ongoing dispute between residents of an idyllic Irish village and the global corporate giant intent on transforming this pristine piece of coastland into a natural gas pipeline corridor. What makes this study so compelling is how the history of rural Irish conflict and its legacy of self-determination finds expression in the collective hope and common action of a dedicated group of ordinary people. Destination Rossport is refreshingly balanced in its presentation of the local consequences of global economics. Both intelligent and moving, the film is no simple David and Goliath story, but rather the viewer is expected to sort through competing arguments and find their moral perspective on an issue that's relevant to anyone concerned with the “destiny” of the human being in the 21st century."
Casey Slott, PhD
Associate Professor of Speech Communication
College of DuPage |
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