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Written by John Fink, September 17, 2010 at 12:49 pm 

The Pipe is a captivating documentary directed by former television news cameraman Roistered Ó Domhnaill. Working as a journalist he captures the little known struggle between a community fighting to stop Shell Oil from building a high-pressure pipeline across beautiful coasts, farmland and shore. Implicit in this scheme is the government who has sold the rights to such operations for very little without consulting the communities, when protest occurs physical force is deployed as neighbor is turned against neighbor.

The film begins with seductive coastal imagery juxtaposed against police violence as order is forced in Rossport, a coastal village in Northwest Ireland. Jailed and freed early in the film are the Rossport Five, a group of men who had refused to allow Shell to enter their land, were jailed, and later released when it was found Shell’s paperwork was not in order.

The objective flaw of the film is Shell refuses to come on camera, Domhnaill claimed at the screening that they wanted control over the content, to which the filmmakers refused. Still it would have been nice to hear sleazy oil executives or someone, anyone really, defend the legality of Shell’s immoral actions, at least to provide some humor.

The sheer fact that Domhnaill himself was able to record as much as he could, especially in a manner that shows police force is rather amazing. Many areas in the United States have passed laws calling such videoing of police operations as “illegal surveillance” a sad fact when cell phone video recently played a pivotal role in putting office Johannes Mehserle in jail for man slaughter. Had video not existed, Mehserle would be free to “protect our civil liberties” as law enforcement should.

The relationship between the police and protestors in The Pipe is fascinating: they know each other by first name, their kids grew up together: the scars will run deeply in this community. There are minor victories along the way – however big oil wins out as a government sells the coastline without consulting its people, and when the people speak up, they are launched into a police state.

The film is timely, but the message may fall on deaf ears in the United States, after all Morgan City, LA just held its annual Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival, celebrating two industries in the gulf. Rossport is interested in their livelihood, and that means going to jail to protect it. Law enforcement here appears as drones of the state, instructed, even with there is a lack of documentation to arrest the little guy.

The visuals and emotions contained within The Pipe create an engaging and unexpected activist documentary. The problem I’ve always had with activist documentaries is that they explore one side, in this case, knowing the one side – like BP in the Gulf, they are probably working on a propaganda campaign of their own in advance of the film’s release.

8 out of 10