Oil In The Family
Project Directors: Jon Goldman and Jay Spain
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In 1948, the father of the American documentary, Robert J. Flaherty was commissioned by Standard Oil to make a film about exploring for oil. The film portrays the excitement and the rewards a Cajun family receives when a drilling rig sets up on their property. My grandmother helped Flaherty make that film, and my family was also a beneficiary of the discovery of oil. So there is a personal element to Oil in the Family as well. The film is a story of environmental, economic and cultural change told by the people who lived it. The young boy in Flaherty's film, JC Boudreau, talks about making the film, growing up to work in the oil fields, and the changes that oil exploration and development have made to the bayou he grew up in. Wilma Subra, MacArthur Fellow and former EPA scientist, details some of the toxic impacts that linger long after the drilling and pumping are done. To people for whom the discovery of oil brought education, health care and an improved standard of living, there is a certain tolerance of the environmental sacrifices. To the long time petrochemical employee, oil enabled him to live a better life than his father could ever have imagined. This is a film about the history of oil in a small part of Louisiana, but it is a story about all of us, about the blessing and curse of oil for all Americans told by a few of the people who were there at the beginning and live there today.