Six months after wildfires, Canada’s oil sands now hit by DiCaprio’s new film

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Nearly six months after massive wildfires close to Canada’s oil sands forced one of the largest evacuations in the country’s history, affecting production, Leonardo DiCaprio’s new climate-change documentary threatens to bring unwanted, negative attention to the industry.

Critics are already referring to the scenes shown in the film, particularly an aerial of the oil sands, as “terrifying”.

Fisher Stevens, director of Before The Flood, which has been in the works since 2014, recently told Canadian Press he was “really horrified” by how the landscape looked in north-eastern Alberta.

“It does employ a lot of people,” Stevens acknowledged. “Look, we all want work, we all need jobs — God knows. And it would be great if it was like: ‘Now, we take all of these people and we replant all of that forest.’ Wouldn’t that be amazing?,” he said.

Last year, the Church of England threatened to dump about £3m ($3.7 million) in oil shares after the release of Virunga, DiCaprio’s documentary that shows alleged SOCO International representatives taking bribes to rangers to access the park of the same name.

In Before The Flood, to be screened this weekend in 171 countries, in 45 languages, DiCaprio (in a producer role) travels to several continents and the Arctic, meeting with political and religious leaders, scientists and activists.

The Oscar-winning actor, a leading figure in Hollywood’s environmental movement, has said he doesn’t want to point fingers at anyone, but some movie critics are already referring to the scenes shown in the film, particularly an aerial of the oil sands, as “terrifying”.

“My hope is that this film provides a global wakeup call about our inevitable fate should we fail to act,” Stevens said in a statement.

Here’s’ a preview:

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