Courtesy of the Denver Film Festival
Audio By Carbonatix
Denver Film Festival artistic director Matt Campbell is offering his must-see picks for each day of the fest – including many flicks that movie lovers might otherwise miss amid the flood of silver-screen goodies. Today he spotlights a selection for today, November 3: How to Blow Up a Pipeline.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Directed by Daniel Goldhaber
Thursday, November 3, 7:15 p.m.
AMC House 2
Daniel Goldhaber, the director of How to Blow Up a Pipeline, “is from Boulder,” notes Matt Campbell. “He’s a local guy, and his previous film, Cam, was at the festival a few years ago.” His latest project, meanwhile, “got picked up by Neon,” a major distributor of independent films, at the Toronto International Film Festival. “So they’re definitely going to do a big release for him,” Campbell says. “He’s a filmmaker to watch.”
The title of Goldhaber’s latest is literal, not figurative, Campbell points out. “The story follows a group of quote-unquote ‘eco-terrorists’ – not quite Antifa, but of that variety – that’s planning to blow up a pipeline in Texas as a form of protest against climate change. And there’s a fantastic ensemble cast, including actors like Sasha Lane, who was in American Honey.”
The film “definitely doesn’t advocate doing things like this,” he goes on. “It’s a thriller that investigates what drives these people to commit such an act and follows them as they’re planning to do it. So there’s this tug-of-war of conscience and ethics and questions about where do you draw the line between activism and terrorism. But the film doesn’t give an easy answer to what you should think. Like most of the best films, the kinds of films we try to champion within the festival, it will hopefully spark dialogue.”
Here’s a video about How to Blow Up a Pipeline from this year’s Toronto Film Festival that serves as a preview of the Denver Film Festival screening; Goldhaber, writer Jordan Sjol and producer Isa Mazzei are slated to participate in a Q&A with attendees.
Find details about tickets for the 45th annual Denver Film Festival here.
