Wanblee, South Dakota – Oglala Lakota Nation – March 5, 2012. Marie Randall is 92 and standing in the road blocking the trucks carrying segments for the Keystone XL pipeline. Five Lakotas on Pine Ridge Indian land in South Dakota were arrested Monday after attempting to block two tarsands pipeline trucks from entering their land. According to the Lakota activist the six-hour standoff started when the trucks refused to turn around claiming they had “corporate rights that supersede any other law.”

Here are three films on the Pipeline for use with your communities and congregations.

DIRTY OIL (USA, 2009, 73 min.)

Exposing the environmental and human rights issues in Alberta’s toxic oil sands, the film traces the environmental and social impacts of Canadian oil on both sides of the U.S. border. It follows pipelines from the Alberta oil sands to the American Midwest to witness how U.S. refineries, much like their Canadian counterparts, are increasing toxic dumping into the Great Lakes. It features interviews with top environmentalists, scientists, government officials, local residents and chiefs of nearby aboriginal tribes. Narrated by Neve Campbell. Directed by Leslie Iwerks.

PIPE DREAMS (USA, 2011, 40 min.)

Across the heartland of America, farmers and landowners are fighting to protect their land, their water and their livelihood in what has become a controversial environmental battle. This film spotlights the David and Goliath struggle over the tar sands Keystone XL Pipeline, proposed to be routed from Hardisty, Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, crossing the country’s largest freshwater resource, the Ogallala Aquifer, and the fragile Sandhills of Nebraska, posing devastating consequences to human health, livestock, and agriculture. Interviews are featured with farmers and ranchers along the pipeline’s route and with Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, International Program Director, Natural Resources Defense Council. Narrated by Daryl Hannah. Directed and produced by Leslie Iwerks.

DOWNSTREAM (USA, 2008)

At the heart of the multi-billion dollar Oil Sands industry in Alberta, Canada, a doctor’s career is jeopardized as he fights for the lives of the aboriginal people living and dying of rare cancers downstream from one of the most polluting oil operations in the world.