2023 / 00:12:49 / Writer + Director + Editor
Set across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, this short documentary reveals the knife-edge legal battles at the country's highest courts, the onshore fossil fuel developments hidden in plain sight, and the local communities fighting back.
I directed and edited this documentary bringing together footage filmed around by filmmakers at a coal mine in Ffos-y-Fran, Wales; a gas caverns project in Islandmagee, Northern Ireland; and the site of a proposed new coal mine in Whitehaven, Cumbria. I carried out remote interviews with lawyers and campaigners, and filmed a protest walk in Surrey, the scenes outside the Supreme Court as a landmark legal battle was about to get underway, and in the studio in London to bring the stories together.
This film was timed to launch alongside a media story and an interactive map of oil, coal and gas sites across the country, produced by the Friends of the Earth data team. All the footage we shot was also used for social media content including posts on Twitter and Instagram reels to bring widespread attention to the legal cases we were covering.
Directed and edited by Paul Wace Producer Isobel Foulsham Whitehaven DP Jonathan Salariya Horse Hill + Supreme Court DP Paul Wace Additional camera Leona Kadijevic Stock Getty Satellite imagery Google Thanks Coal Action Network
Made while working full-time for Friends of the Earth.