IRELAND & UK

DVD (€14.99) and Blu-Ray (€24.99) now on sale in Ireland in HMV, Tesco, Xtra-Vision, Charlie Burns Galway, Healy’s of Barnatra, Laser and the IFI or online at:

thepipe.myshopify.com/

or

amazon.co.uk/Pipe

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UNITED STATES & CANADA

Now available through Filmbuff Distribution: www.filmbuffondemand.com

Click here for iTunes Playstation Xbox and Vudu

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

DVD available from SBS online shop: www.sbs.com.au

Madman Entertainment: www.madman.co.nz

JB Hi-Fi: www.jbhifionline.com.au

FURTHER READING:

Award Winning Book on Corrib Controversy ‘Once Upon in the West’ by Lorna Siggins

www.transworldireland.ie

‘Centre for Public Inquiry’ report on Corrib Controversy by Frank Connolly and Dr Ronan Lynch

Cpi-Corrib-Report-Fiosru-2hires-Final

Frontline Report ‘Breakdown of Trust’ by Brian Barrington BL

www.frontlinedefenders.org

For a list of cinemas and dates, click here: The Pipe in Cinemas

The last 6 months have been like a rollercoaster for The Pipe ever since it premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh back in July. Indeed, after 3 years of shooting and a year in the edit, I had no idea what the reaction would be from people, especially the locals, given that they had no idea what was in the film. That night of Thursday the 8th of July in Galway was a really nervewracking experience as people began to arrive, a large section of them from Rossport and the surrounding villages close to the Corrib project. Having filmed these people during their daily lives, at the protests and during some very difficult and painful times over the past 3 years, I had no idea how the community would react to seeing their souls bared on the big screen.

The reaction was really incredible, especially from people whose lives had been so intensely affected by the Corrib project, and all the emotions of the past 10 years seemed to flood back in those 83 minutes in the Town Hall Theatre; the joy, the humour, the pain of the jailings and the heartache of seeing their own community ripped apart by infighting. And although parts of the film were difficult for many of the people to watch, they seemed to really appreciate seeing their story told for the first time without being manipulated or spun.

Having sold out all of our screenings beforehand, I was a bundle of nerves going into our first screening as I had no idea if the Canadians would actually ‘get’ the story. Remember, here was a small community in one of the most isolated corners of Ireland with a very particular story, sense of humour. and a very unique way with words (at times more like Irish in terms of sentence construction). Remarkably, the Canadians, traditionally a fairly conservative audience, reacted very emotionally to the film and gave us a standing ovation! That was the point for me when I knew that this story would travel, and I was delighted that the audience could empathise with the people on screen. People saw in the characters their own neighbours, friends and relations, and felt that this could be a  community anywhere – Canada, Nigeria, Russia – any community whose rights have been set aside by their own government in favour of a very powerful private interest – in this case it just happens to be Shell. Off the back of Toronto we got a lot of interest from ordinary people and distributors, and from there on we were ‘out the gap’.

We screened in the London and Amsterdam film festivals with great success, just narrowly missing out on the top prize in the prestigious ‘Green Screen’ competition to Into Eternity by Michael Madsen, but the judges felt The Pipe deserved an ‘honorable mention’ none the less. We screened at the Cork Film Festival to a sell-out crowd of 250 at the Gate cinema who then offered us a 2 week cinema run on the back of the success of that screening on a cold, wet Monday night. The Cork audience was probably the most vocal audience I have ever experienced – laughing out loud, expressing their shock at the treatment of some of the characters in the film, and taking me on in a very frank and challenging debate in the Q&A afterwards. Only last week we screened at the Foyle Film Festival in Derry and picked up the award for Best Documentary, and I was amazed at the depth of knowledge people had up in Derry regarding the politics and history surrounding Corrib!

Now that we are on the verge of a national cinema release, I just find it hard to believe that the story of this small isolated community is now going up against the big Hollywood blockbusters like Narnia and Harry Potter in cinemas around the country. However, I think it is crucial that the film is released at this time, despite it being the most competitive time of the year in cinemas. We are now in the middle of possibly the worst crisis to hit this country since the foundation of the State, our politicians having put powerful private interests ahead of the greater good of the citizens with devastating consequences, and I feel that the Corrib story is a microcosm of that larger picture.  Hopefully The Pipe will in some way give people an insight into this, but also show them that even in times of great despair and seemingly insurmountable challenges, people can find amazing resources within themselves, and within their communities, to get through the hard times, and even share a joke every now and then!

Risteard Ó Domhnaill
Director
The Pipe

• The Pipe goes on release from Friday December 3rd.

Special Events:

• There will be a Gala Opening at the IFI on December 2nd at 18.00 with a Q&A with Risteard and members of the Rossport community.
• On December 4th at 13.30 there will be a panel discussion entitled The Pipe: Rossport and the Corrib Gas Project chaired by journalist Lorna Siggins about the project and its impact on the community. Free but ticketed event.
• On December 11th at 13.30 The Pipe: Politics and Film will look at the role art and filmmaking can play within a political campaign. Free but ticketed event.

"The Solitaire" photo: Peter Sweetman

“Tháinig long ó Valparaiso”

On the 8^th September, 2008, the world’s largest pipelaying ship sailed into Broadhaven Bay. This was not Pádraig de Brun’s ship of dreams but  a menacing symbol of a powerful multinational oil company threatening the serenity of this beautifully scenic area. This was the climax of a story that began with the discovery of a major gas find off the North West coast of Ireland.

The news was greeted with excitement in an area left behind and forgotten by successive governments. This would create jobs and prosperity and inject new life into a place drained of it’s lifeblood by emigration. There were few, if any dissenting voices. So, where did things go wrong? A combination of political ineptitude and a lack of proper consultation on the part of government and the oil company helped create the long running battle that is still going on between locals, the Gardaí and the multinational – Shell.

Lorna Siggins – marine correspondent for the Irish Times – has reported on these events since they began. When other journalists wrote about the more sensational issues such as the protests, Siggins told things as they were, without fear or favour. So who better to chronicle this saga? She uses a narrative style to guide the reader through a timetable of events that include meetings, oral hearings, court cases, protests et cetera, and her attention to detail is simply amazing  She brings to life the main characters and tells the story as it happens  This book is full of human stories, tragic in places, but with touches of humour All is told against a background of facts carefully referenced using excellent notes at the back.

The story begins with an aptly titled chapter – “Bedrock”.  This traces the history of the area from the geological formation of oil and gas, to the oldest farm settlement in the world, right down to the present.  This is an area with a rich cultural and archaeological past, ancient monuments dot the landscape, and stories of the Children of Lir and of local giants like Caocháin abound. There are references to the literary history of the place – Séamus Heaney’s poem on the Céide Fields, J. M. Synge’s “Playboy of the Western World’’ and Robert Llyod Praeger’s description of the area as “the wildest, loneliest stretch of country to be had in all of Ireland”. It is a unique landscape with a fragile ecosystem that has been designated as an S.A.C. (special area of conservation) by the European Commission.

One of the things that strike the reader is the number of characters that inhabit the story – politicians, priests, Shell personnel, members of Mayo County Council, to name a few. Included in this list are the concerned members of the local community who weave in and out of this story. John McGahern once said that one has to be from an area in order to understand it, and Siggins seems to have an intimate insight into the local character. There’s the straight talking fisherman, Pat O Donnell,the calm stoical Mary Corduff and the volatile Maura Harrington.

The story has plenty of drama – a landslide tears through the village of Glengad, men go to jail, a hunger strike occurs when the world’s largest pipe laying ship arrives. Her account of the arrival of the “Solitaire” is vividly portrayed. We can picture this mammoth vessel surrounded by naval ships, fishing boats and Garda ribs in a scene reminiscent of a naval battle.

This is a story that had to be told. Shell thought they were coming to an isolated, backward area, which they probably were, and that, consequently, the people were backward, which they are not.  Siggins quotes Lelia Doolan who said that there had ‘’never been a blanket rejection of the gas for the betterment of life’’, but there ‘’were and are other routes, other options.  No wonder Shell is trying to mend it’s hand with various inducements and sponsorships and scholarships.’’ These people are not Luddites – they want progress but not at a cost to their health, their landscape or their culture. The book ends with a quote from the late Justin Keating, former minister for energy, ‘’I hope that it is all done in a social context, building a community rather than giving out money.’’  Well done to Lorna Siggins, for, to quote Fintan O Toole in his foreword, ‘’writing a book that demands to be read by anyone interested in the workings of contemporary power.’’

Mary Caulfield

For more information or to purchase the book, follow the link below (there is no revenue deal between the publishers and this website):

Buy Online

Mon 08 Nov | 9:00pm | Gate Cinema

There will be a Questions and Answers session after the film with the director Risteard O Domhnaill and it promises to be a very robust discussion!

Tickets available here @ CFF

London Film Festival Review: The Pipe

11 days ago on 10/23/2010 | Xander Markham

5 comments

At its heart, the story of The Pipe is a profound and disturbing failure of democracy. It’s all too easy to take for granted the numerous controversies and immoralities that we hear of governments taking part in on the news because they always seem to be behind the scenes dealing, causing little or no direct damage to the civilian population. So what if a politician is in some corporation’s back pocket? It’s not great, but at least I still have my house and livelihood. Risteard O’Domhnaill’s documentary shines a spotlight on an ongoing battle between Shell Oil and the Irish coastal town of Rossport, whose small but familial community found themselves thrown to the wolves by the government which should have been protecting them.

O’Domhnaill follows five citizens whose peaceful protests see them beaten by police acting as corporate enforcers, arrested and jailed for months on the word of officers without evidence or proveable charge, and have their fishing boats impounded (and as fisherman Pat O’Donnell revealed in the subsequent Q&A, later sunk by masked thugs) for protecting the waters where the fishing rights were exclusively theirs. It’s impossible not to laugh at the ridiculousness of seeing the Irish government send a navy warship to break up a barricade of tiny boats, led by O’Donnell, whose sole crime is making sure Shell’s enormous tanker doesn’t damage their fishing equipment.

Although Rossport’s struggles may appear extreme, the film shows the extent to which the democratic system has been mutilated by governments desperate to cling onto power at any cost, rather than aiding the people they are supposed to be serving. Throughout Rossport’s fight to preserve their coastline, they find laws being habitually broken by those who put them in place.

Despite being represented in the media as ideologically spiteful, the locals repeat over and over again that they have no problem with Shell mining the gas and making profits, but refuse to allow their livelihoods and local ecosystem to be destroyed in the process. Should the gas line be put in place, the fishing industry on which the town thrives would be ruined and the environmental damage (especially to the nearby river, impotently ‘protected’ by the European Union, where salmon swim upstream to spawn) would be catastrophic. It was revealed during the Q&A that the locals were informed by Shell they would have “about thirty seconds” to evacuate if the pipeline ruptured before their homes would be destroyed. Contrast the corporation’s blind tearing up of the (public) local beach to farmer Willie Corduff’s knowledge of the volatile local land inherited from his father – a bog through which the pipe is projected to be laid has such unstable ground that it wobbles under the feet of anyone crossing it – and it becomes apparent how real that danger is.

Submissions to Shell for potential alternate routes go ignored and as the bullying by police and corporate pressure intensifies (according to the Q&A, Shell have reportedly begun offering large bribes to select members of the community), the once peaceful town becomes increasingly divided. One of the greatest tragedies is seeing how many of the policemen, now so vigourous in their beating of the pacifist protestors, used to be long-time family friends of those manning the picket lines. Watching the townsfolk address officers by name and make ignored pleas for clemency and respect exemplifies how false the old adage that ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ really is. In truth, all it takes for a man to turn on his oldest friends is a day-glo jacket, a baton and some official orders to act out.

Shell refused to take part in the film, which does result in a somewhat one-sided perspective, but director O’Domhnaill never descends into baseless moralising. The story is told through the eyes of the ‘Rossport five’ (although Pat O’Donnell takes a lead role for the film’s final act) as they go about their efforts to protect what is rightfully theirs and are blocked or dismissed – often illegally – at every step. As the film’s editor Nigel O’Reagan stated during the Q&A, the decision was made to exclude any footage where judgment was expressed on Shell’s actions in favour of leaving it to the audience to make the moral calls for themselves. The five locals were present at the screening and Pat O’Donnell told a more recent story of when Shell overstepped their rights to lay undersea pipeline by fifty metres and were taken to court by O’Donnell’s son Jonathan. Even though the judged deemed Shell’s actions unlawful, he stated that it would be ‘unfair’ to the corporation to ask them to retract the pipeline and ruled in their favour – leaving Jonathan O’Donnell to pick up the legal costs.

At under ninety minutes (reduced, according to editor O’Reagan, from a first cut of nine hours taken from over four years’ worth of footage), the film is a tightly told story that makes its points without labouring or preaching. Rossport makes a beautiful setting and is elegantly photographed, from the tall green hills and rolling ocean waves to homely charm of the town itself, making it all the more distressing when we have to watch it being dug up by an army of invading tractors. If The Cove (an outstanding 2009 documentary about dolphin slaughter in Japan, which like The Pipe also exposed a wide-reaching web of political and human cruelty) horrified in its representations of animal abuse, anyone who has ever taken pleasure in a beautiful landscape will feel similarly sick at the mechanical desecration of Glengad beach.

The Pipe may be additionally topical in the wake of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – an event the locals said in the Q&A that they were morbidly thankful for, as it brought the dangers of pipeline faults into the public consciousness – but the lasting story will be one of how easily good men can be betrayed by the people they elected to protect them and the once trusted friends who sold out for the slightest whispers of power. Although the film ends with Shell in temporary retreat, the legal wranglings are still ongoing and Shell continue to lay down the pipe, apparently hoping that they can finish before the cases against them reach court and content to deal with a fine as long as their work is completed, no matter the human or communal cost.

Despite the distressing nature of the film’s subject matter, it’s the locals who keep the tone hopeful and uplifting. Pat O’Connell, in a moment of joy, gets the closing line and it’s a perfect summation of the passion, broad humour and gutsy bravado that keeps him going. As long as there are good people willing to stand up to the higher powers that try to bully them (Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern outright condemns the townspeople for standing up for themselves in a clip near the beginning of the film), their voices will be eventually heard. Whether or not those voices can make an impact will surely be the ultimate judgment on whether we in the Western world can still call ourselves free, or even if we deserve to.

Score: 8.45 – Great (Movies that score between 8.00 and 8.50 are great representations of their genre that everyone should see in theatres on opening night

On Friday, 22nd October 2010 at 6:15 pm, a film about the community at the centre of the Corrib Gas controversy, entitled ‘The Pipe’, will screen at the British Film Institute in Southbank – only a few hundred metres away from the headquarters of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. It was here in this building on the 22nd July 2002, that the Committee of Managing Directors of Shell met to discuss, among other things, the recent refusal of planning consent for the Corrib gas field refinery by the Irish Planning Board. The following decision taken here by the senior Shell management team would set in train a collision course between a tiny community and the Irish State, and one which would have devastating consequences for the inhabitants of the small coastal village of Rossport.

For details of screenings on the 22nd, 23rd and 25th of October at the British Film Institute at Southbank, London, please visit:
London Film Festival – The Pipe

View BFI Southbank & Shell Centre in a larger map

Paddy Briggs worked for Shell for 37 years, the last 15 of which were in international brand and reputation management appointments. Today, through his BrandAware™ consultancy, he advises businesses on brand and reputation management issues. Paddy is a prolific writer and journalist, especially on his specialist business subjects and on sport. He is also one of two pensioner-elected trustees of the £13 billion Shell Contributory Pension Fund.

‘The Pipe’ UK Premiere, October 2010
British Film Institute, Belvedere Road, South Bank, London SE1 8XT

Fri 22 | 18:15 | NFT2 FULLY BOOKED
Sat 23 | 19:30 | STUDIO FULLY BOOKED
Mon 25 | 13:15 | NFT2 BOOK NOW

The Pipe @ LFF

Introduction: Michael Hayden ‘Time Out’ London

Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s compelling and deeply moving documentary follows a campaign trying to prevent Shell lay a pipeline in county Mayo.

When it was discovered that there was a reserve of 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas 80km off the west coast of Ireland, a consortium led by Shell developed plans to lay a pipeline into County Mayo, through the village of Rossport. Without having been consulted in the planning process, the small farming and fishing community objected, fearing the risk of environmental damage, and understandably keen to protect their land, fishing grounds and, indeed, their very way of life. Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s compelling, moving film followed the campaign against Shell over four years. There are disturbing scenes of Irish Garda being deployed to remove protestors and drag people to jail; and implications that the Irish government is backing Shell, motivated by economic greed. Tension mounts when the protestors disagree on the best way to take Shell on, and individuals feel compelled to take increasingly more desperate action. Ultimately, The Pipe serves as a stirring tribute to the brave men and women fighting for their rights, and standing up to a corporate giant. Yet there’s poignancy, too, as its inhabitants accept, whether Shell stay or go, Rossport will never be the same again.

The Pipe

(Docu – Ireland) A Scannain Inbhear Teoranta presentation in association with Underground Films, Riverside Television and TG4 with the participation of the Irish Film Board. (International sales: Cinetic Media, New York.) Produced by Rachel Lysaght, Risteard O Domhnaill. Directed by Risteard O Domhnaill.

With: Pat O’Donnell, Willie Corduff, Mary Corduff, Monica Muller & Maura Harrington.

What do people do, when the law prevents them from protecting themselves? That’s the question at the heart of “The Pipe,” a stirring, character-rich docu from Irish helmer Risteard O Domhnaill about Shell vs. Rossport, Ireland, where the oil company decided to run a gas line, and the community decided otherwise. The Irish don’t harbor a lot of affection toward things British, but those behind “The Pipe” might think fondly of BP, whose recent gulf disaster will add currency and urgency to this charismatic David-Goliath tale. Look for some theatrical gas and a secure on-air berth.

The film is beautifully composed and valiantly photographed (O Domhnaill, also the d.p., shoots clashes between Rossport villagers and members of the Irish Garda so closely you can virtually feel the rioters’ breath in your face). But it’s also politically astute: It isn’t just one village that’s at stake, but democracy itself, especially when the Irish government all but abdicates its role in the case and the Garda essentially assumes the role of corporate muscle. Shell will move on, “The Pipe” implies, but the wounds left behind on a small community like Rossport — where neighbor essentially fought neighbor — will take generations to heal, if at all.

Narration-less and musically upbeat, the film begins in 2005, with the arrest of what would become known as the “Rossport Five” — locals who refuse to allow Shell to lay pipeline across their land. Among them was Willie Corduff, who not only exemplifies how a Rossport waterman makes a living, but also shows how delicate the ecosystem is below his feet. Shell refused to cooperate with the film, and that may have been a good move, politically speaking: It’s hard to imagine a corporate functionary countering Corduff’s knowledge or elementary wisdom.

O Domhnaill’s access to the Rossport citizenry seems to have been unlimited, and just as he portrays a people pulled together by common grievance, he also gets inside the internecine verbal warfare that threatens to pull them apart. Maura Harrington, whose take-no-prisoners attitude toward Shell makes her a divisive force in the town, launches a hunger strike that may or may not have helped the cause. Pat O’Donnell, a fisherman and community pillar, stars in several scenes in which he defiantly runs his fishing boat around the massive Shell craft; he’s arrested many times for insisting Shell obey the court orders it so blithely ignores. O’Donnell is a hero of the campaign, and the movie.

Tech credits are first-rate, especially O Domhnaill’s shooting, which ranges from action-thriller verite to meditative and painterly.

Camera (color, HD), O Domhnaill; editor, Nigel O’Regan; music, Stephen Rennicks, Hugh Drumm; sound, Barry Reid. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Real to Reel), Sept. 9, 2010. Running time: 83 MIN.

Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=story&r=VE1117943512&c=2863

September 1, 2010 – Dublin/Los Angeles—An Irish documentary film, in competition at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival, has a surprising life-imitating-art-imitating-life quality to it in the wake of the Canadian oil sands pipeline spill in Michigan, late July 2010.

THE PIPE, from Galway based Director Risteard Ó Domhnaill and Producer Rachel Lysaght, premieres on Friday, September 10^th (AMC 2, 09:45pm), and repeats again on September 11^th(AMC 2, 09:00am) and 19^th (AMC 9, 12:15pm) at the Toronto Film Festival (www.tiff.net).

THE PIPE tells the story of the local, grassroots community effort in Rossport, County Mayo (Ireland) to halt the planned laying of a gas pipeline by Shell Oil, across fishing grounds and pastoral farmland, following the discovery of a large supply field offshore.

Shell Oil, with the taciturn approval of the Irish State government, had planned to begin the laying of the pipeline underwater, off the Mayo coast. The proposed pipeline would then snake over working farms and pristine landscape for miles to its destination. The local community, fearing loss of livelihood, environmental disasters, non-transparent corporate profits and the invoking of “eminent domain”, rose up in non-violent rebellion. Unfortunately, not all sides knew about the non-violent clause.

Shell Oil is also one of the three largest owners of the Canadian Oil Sands projects in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Canadian oil industry has been looking to expand pipeline access and exports to the U.S. via a planned Northern Gateway project to the West Coast and the TransCanada Keystone XL Line to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The Enbridge ENB-T pipeline break on July 27, 2010 has, to date, spilled some three million litres of crude into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River (source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/enbridge-spill-yields-fresh-ammo-for-oil-sands-critics/article1654445/).

THE PIPE Director Risteard Ó Domhnaill and Producer Rachel Lysaght will be in attendance at TIFF, and will be conducting enhanced Q/A sessions after the screenings to include questions from the Canadian communities opposing the oil sands projects.

Thom Powers, documentary programmer of the Toronto International Film Festival, announces official world premiere of ‘The Pipe’ on 10th September 2010 at 9:45pm

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2010/pipe

Big energy corporations normally get what they want. When Shell discovered an undersea natural gas field off Ireland’s west coast, they swung into action. The plan was to build a giant, high-pressure pipe to transport raw gas through the town of Rossport to an inland refinery. Unfortunately, no one asked the residents of Rossport, who feared the risks of explosions and environmental hazards.

In The Pipe, director Risteard Ó Domhnaill chronicles the crusade of Irish farmers and fishermen who rise up against Shell. For locals, the pipe isn’t a sign of prosperity, but a threat to their way of life.

The premise is reminiscent of Bill Forsyth’s 1983 comedy Local Hero, in which an American oil company faces cultural clashes with the inhabitants of a Scottish village. In Local Hero the dynamics could be played for laughs, but in The Pipe the real-life stakes have dire consequences. The film plunges us into violent clashes between protestors and police. As tensions mount, the community divides over how to confro nt Shell. The conflict widens to draw in Catholic priests and even the Irish political leader, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

In the past year, “Big Energy” has fought hard against documentarians. Industry advocates mounted a public relations attack on Gasland, and Chevron applied legal pressure on the filmmaker of Crude. The Pipe reminds us again how a multinational corporation can deploy vast resources to battle dissenters.

We come to know several key figures in the opposition, including the wizened and profane Maura Harrington and members of the “Rossport Five,” who served time in jail. Another standout is Pat “The Chief” O’Donnell, a professional crab fisherman who is fiercely protective over the region’s waters. “There’s no job in the world that would replace it,” he says of fishing. Chugging along in his modest crab boat, he confronts the world’s largest pipe-laying vessel, the Solitaire. The match is like a dinghy challenging an aircraft carrier, and the film places us alongside O’Donnell to witness the outcome.

Thom Powers