Sadly Over-hyped

A Major Disappointment

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Right wing propaganda at it's lowest. Ironically purporting to "care" for the poor while the real negative effects of this industry are felt by the people who work for a "living" and will suffer the most by supporting it. This so called "film maker" is a shill for the right wing capitalist zealots that own the mining industry and have created the pollution that threatens the only home we know. The producer and director has been spewing this anti-science propaganda with other trash like "Frack Nation" and "Not Evil Just Wrong" paid for by Murdoch and Charles and David Koch. It is surprising that these billionaires have so many "poor people" convinced that science is out to harm them and that it is their enemy when the earth itself is ignored at our peril.

My husband and I watched this film and were startled to find that, although the subjects were in various countries and nowhere near us, we felt it was a tale of our current plight. Change the location and the industry and it is HERE.What an excellent film. Finally, local people speaking for themselves rather than outsiders declaring what is correct or allowable for the locals.What is the definition of poverty? This film shows the real definition and the reason why poverty is still so rampant, even in the United States.This should be required viewing in all schools. Instead of the "green" movement propaganda that is overtaking our children and brainwashing them into believing an ecological fairytale, reality should be given at least equal time. This film is that reality.

This movie gets to the heart of the "other side" of the story. While most well-to-do westerners oppose mining on altruistic and environmental grounds, they ignore what happens to the people whose livelihoods depend on mines. From Eastern Europe to South America, we travel from mine to mine to get the perspectives of the mine workers, the communities that depend on them, as well as perspectives from environmentalists. What makes this movie so effective is how it juxtaposes the claims of self-absorbed Western environmentalists with what actually goes on in poor mining communities.It's not the usual feel-good pap you'll see from Hollywood. This movie will challenge the western viewer's assumptions about the impacts of "feel good" environmentalism. When DDT was banned in Africa to satisfy Western environmentalist desires, millions of Africans died. Now the cycle seems to be repeating, only this time Westerners are killing off a way of living for many of the world's poorest.

It is good to see that large mining companies have mainly philanthropic goals as depicted in this documentary. In all three examples we are given it is obvious that the existing population will benefit from the proposed mining operations and that they are very keen for operations to start. It makes one feel good to see the landscape repairs that are GOING to happen in the little Romanian town that was raped by old Soviet mining methods.The self interests of the opposing environmental lobbyists was a refreshing angle and the downright patronising attitude of the South African environmentalist in Madagascar needed to be exposed.The whole picture, however, seems to me a little unbalanced. The only examples reported in the documentary showed what the mining companies are GOING to do. There was NOT ONE example of an EXISTING mining operation in a third world country to show how well they have achieved their stated aims in the past (perhaps because they couldn't find any).The whole story would have benefited if there had been at least one example where we were shown the real benefits that have accrued from existing mining operations. How many local jobs have been created in mines in, say, Ghana or Indonesia versus how many workers are flown in from other countries? We also should have been shown how mines in these area have added to local environments. What wetlands etc. have been created? Some footage of the beautified landscapes that have been created by existing operations would also have been useful. I suspect they were not shown because they would not have painted a very flattering pictureThis documentary very well produced but I feel that we are only being told half of the story. The effects of mining in third world countries are somewhat more intrusive than the rosy picture painted here.