Valve Turners

VALVE TURNERS documents a group of older, white Americans who turned emergency valves and halted five oil pipelines entering the United States from Canada. Charged with felonies, they argue their actions were necessary due to decades of political failures and urgent climate warnings from scientists. Our team had unique access, accompanying the activists as they carried out their plan to stop 2.8 million barrels of tar sands oil from reaching U.S. refineries. This access continued as they went to trial in four separate states, advancing the climate necessity defense in case law. Archival footage of United Nations negotiations and on-the-ground reporting from climate disasters further illuminate the activists' motivations and the damaged world they are striving to prevent.