WHIDDY floored me. There is something about this look at when American oil companies decided to build a teminal in Whiddy Ireland because of trouble in the Suez, that was bandoned when the politics changed, that grabbed me at the start and pulled me in. My thought was that I was going to watch a few minutes and then come back later. Instead, I sat there and watched as 90 minutes blew by without a thought.
There are numerous reasons that this film works as well as it does. The first is that it is telling us an interesting story most of us have never heard before. It’s also a tale that resonates with what is going on today. All over the world towns and villages are being sold bills of goods with the promise that this new project will help them. Sometimes it works and a lot of time it doesn’t. Either way it often leaves the towns and villages fragmented.
This is a great film that has haunted me over the weeks since I saw it. I’ve been trying to find the words to really discuss it but I find that I need to see it a second or third time. That is a rave because it means that WHIDDY is a film that doesn’t wash over you but grabs you by the throat and insists that we engage with it.
This is one of the absolute must sees at DOC NYC and as such is highly recommended.
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