Though at its heart a work of advocacy, this documentary about the aftermath of BPs disastrous oil spill is nuanced and cinematic
This is what you call Hard Luck City, says a man delivering groceries to families displaced to makeshift trailers in the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Hes a warm, elderly, bon mot-spewing African American with a thick Alabama accent, and the fact that his name is Roosevelt is a biting irony. These citizens, whose local oyster shucking economy has been destroyed by the negligence of enormous corporations inexorably tied to our government, are getting no New Deal.
As news cycles spin in seemingly ever-increasing velocity, public outrage is like a chef at an enormous range, placing roiling pots on backburners as the latest crisis comes along demanding attention. In early 2010 the nation was stunned, saddened and furious at BP and its subcontractors after an accident killed 11 workers and spilled over 200m gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Something must be done! shouted our politicians and pundits. It probably wont surprise you to learn that nothing has been done. The Great Invisible is a reminder that the problem of offshore drilling, and our energy policy in general, is still a bubbling pot.