Tête-à-Tête is a new series that uncovers extended versions of interviews conducted by WWNO journalists. Broadcasting means time limits, and often conversations that range from thirty to forty minutes in length get thirty to forty seconds on air. Tête-à-Tête brings these deeper discussions to light.
Margaret Brown directed and co-produced "The Great Invisible" — a new documentary about the 2010 BP Oil Spill that won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 South by Southwest film festival.
Brown grew up on the coast in Alabama. After the spill, her dad started sending her pictures of the fire department laying boom in the water, right in front of her house. “It was so upsetting to see this pristine place with all these workers and booms to prevent the oil from coming in” Brown said. “And I was talking to people I knew from growing up , and no one knew what was gonna happen. And I thought, if there was something I can do, it’s make a movie.”
Here, WWNO's Laine Kaplan-Levenson and Margaret Brown discuss the story this filmmaker decided to tell, what she learned through the people she met, and how we are all connected to and participate in the oil and gas industry — or as Brown puts it, the "factory under the gulf of Mexico."
Interview Highlights:
"There are two things with the film: how can we switch to hydrogen cars and save more consumption, a clear thing we can all work on. But in the meantime, the other thing is whistleblower protection offshore. It’s a culture offshore — people are afraid to speak up about things they see because they are afraid they’re gonna lose their job. This is one of the last blue collar jobs in America that pays really well. People have a terrible safety record in the gulf because they cut corners, and this is what happens when you cut corners. This is something that we need to push through Congress, is getting something started where these people are not afraid to speak out. Like what are your priorities when you’re working offshore? Is it your job and your family, or the environment?"
"They [oil executives] say that Americans love their cars and like to drive and think it's their birthright. They’re doing the dirty work, but we’re all asking for it. We’re saying in one breath 'boycott BP' and then we’re going to the gas station and filling up our cars. Doing the research opened my eyes. The problem is us. They’re making money off of us and our addiction, but we have to look at our addiction closely for anything to change, and that’s what the film attempts to do: let me make things clear that are obscure, either because the industry doesn’t want us to understand it, or we don’t want to look at where our comfort is coming from. It’s an uncomfortable film in a lot of ways because the finger points back at us as the consumers."
“The film has a really different feel when you show it somewhere like New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mobile. It’s a much more complicated and smarter way of looking at it because people understand the contradictions. In San Francisco or New York it’s not as emotional for people, it’s not as lived in.”
"The Great Invisible" screens through Thursday, December 18 at the Prytania Theatre. Director Margaret Brown will attend teh Dec. 16 showing for a Q+A following the film.