Dir. Shannon Walsh | Canada | 75 MIN

Ever wonder where America gets most of its oil? If you thought it was Saudi Arabia or Iraq you are wrong. America’s biggest oil supplier has quickly become Canada’s oil sands.

Located under Alberta’s pristine boreal forests, the process of oil sands extraction uses up to four barrels of fresh water to produce only one barrel of crude oil. At the same time, water - its depletion, exploitation, privatization and contamination - has become the most important issue to face humanity in this century. A struggle is increasingly being fought between water and oil, not only over them.

H2Oil follows a voyage of discovery, heartbreak and politicization in the stories of those attempting to defend water in Alberta against tar sands expansion, and ultimately asks this question: what is more important, oil or water?

"We are creating an environmental catastrophe that will take centuries to recover from…if we recover at all." - David Suzuki