Friday night featured The Big Fix (2012) part of the Environmental Film Fest. The Big Fix, is an enrapturing exposé about the negligence and short-cuts that led to the Deep Horizon rig stationed off the coast of Louisiana exploding in April 2010. Several workers were killed and nearly 5 million barrels of oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico., which killed and harmed millions of marine animals.

One of the most serious contentions of the film is that BP uses a massive amount of Corexit, oil dispersant which more toxic to humans and wildlife than oil. The Filmmakers provided good evidence that BP is still using Corexit, even though they were told to stop. The film presents devastating evidence that the air and water have been contaminated, in Louisiana.

Directed by Josh Tickell and his wife, Rebecca Harrell Tickell, The Big Fix, begins with the history of BP oil than focuses on Tickell’s home-state Louisiana. The film preludes to corruption of “Big oil” in the United States and especially in Louisiana.

The Tickells investigate the gulfs coast and snoop around areas declared off-limit. They discover washed up oil in the night which then has been plowed under during the day. The nice pristine sandy beaches give the illusion that the issue no longer exists. They find what they say is an extensive cover-up between BP and the federal government.

Film experts say that the oil well is still leaking and was not properly capped enlarging the dead-zone. It was discovered that there was a 300-400 meter long lake that sits under 400 meters of water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tickells present evidence how the residents’ livelihoods and health has been decimated due BP’s misjudgments. Harrell Tickell herself after spending much time in chemically polluted air began to have skin ailments and repertory conditions.

The Big Fix, begins to run amok in the end hitting more on conspiracy tones lessening the larger issues. The indictment of human greed and oil industries hold on politicians, leads to a weird scene sequence where politicians are compared to strippers.

In the end, the film rallies to a point that is all too similar in most enrapturing documentaries. The call to action showed by countless images of protests simultaneously talking about people standing up.  But the film does make some strong possibly accurate claims on conspiracy.

Again after The Big Fix, showing the Environmental Film Fest had a panel discussion. The panel featured Linfield Professor’s Ned Knight, Bill Fleeger and Tom Love.