Above All Else to Premiere at Environmental Film Festival

Director, producer and cinematographer John Fiege will present his film, “Above All Else” on Aug. 27 at the Environmental Film Festival in Washington D.C.

Fiege grew up in Suburban D.C. and graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Working in both fiction and nonfiction, Fiege’s films have been shown around the world.

“Above All Else” is a documentary that follows the resistance efforts of a group of activists in East Texas against the construction of the Southern leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

First proposed in 2008, the pipeline is a multi-billion dollar project that will transport tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada across six U.S. states to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. The resistance to the pipeline has stemmed from the environmental damage it will cause.

“In the Fall of 2009, I was diagnosed with cancer,” Fiege said. “I was 30 years old and the only explanation was environmental causes.”

Fiege decided that if he could do one last film, it would be on the culture of oil dependency. He began developing the film in 2009 focusing on the BP oil spill. In 2011, Fiege began filming the protests in Texas.

Fiege said the story exploded when President Obama fast-tracked the construction of the Southern leg of the pipeline in March 2012.

The film focuses on landowners in East Texas who were directly impacted by the construction of the pipeline. The landowner’s protest began as an opposition to the threat their land faced and soon transformed into a fight against the far-reaching environmental effects of the pipeline.

David Daniel, the main character in the film, organized the strong following of the movement.The activists sacrifice their time, money and safety to do everything in their power to stop the construction that culminates in a final tree-top blockade of the pipeline.

“It’s a story about what average people with few resources can do to oppose an issue that endangers their health and their livelihood,” said Fiege.

Photo Credit: John Fiege