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Trailer Watch: Daniel Goldhaber’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline
NEON has released the trailer for How to Blow Up a Pipeline, director Daniel Goldhaber’s loose adaptation of Andreas Malm’s non-fiction text of the same name. Goldhaber previously appeared on our 25 New Faces of Independent Film list back in 2018 with collaborator Isa Mazzei on the strength of their debut feature Cam, which Goldhaber directed and Mazzei wrote. Mazzei returns as a producer on this film, with Goldhaber co-writing the script with Jordan Sjol and star Ariela Barer. Pipeline, which was shot on 16mm by DP Tehillah de Castro, is Goldhaber’s sophomore feature-length directorial effort.
Vadim Rizov interviewed Goldhaber ahead of the film’s TIFF premiere back in September, summarizing the film’s premise in his intro:
Eight protagonists from all over the country converge in west Texas to do the titular deed; as they prep the bombs and roll out heavy barrels with explosive charges to detonation sites, the film flashes back and forth to establish their individual paths to this moment. From North Dakota, Native American Michael (Forrest Goodluck) arrives as the most intense, motivated and humorless and takes on assembling the bombs; those helping him include Xochitl (Ariela Barer, also a co-writer and co-producer) and her friends Theo (Sasha Lane), Alisha (Jayme Lawson) and Shawn (Marcus Scribner), all from California; an equally annoying and amusing party kid duo from Portland, Logan (Lukas Gage) and Raven (Kristine Froseth); and, from Texas home court, liberatarian-leaning Dwayne (Jake Weary).
All are introduced as already concerned about the environment but dissatisfied with the scope and inefficacy of their protest options — divestment and marches aren’t enough. There are arguments about the scope of their actions and their consequences, but Pipeline‘s is more a propulsive (group) action film rather than a primer on ecoterrorism.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline will hit theaters via NEON on April 7.
