Parents' Guide to Bad River

Movie NR 2024 88 minutes
Bad River movie poster: Two Bad River Band Native people canoe down the bad river with green trees on either side and blue sky above them

Common Sense Media Review

JK Sooja By JK Sooja , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 14+

Powerful docu about protecting land from an oil company.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 14+?

Any Positive Content?

  • Bad River movie: Two Bad River Band Native people sit and stand in tall grass and shallow water with long poles in hand
  • Bad River movie: The Bad River looks peacefully blue with blue sky above it and tall green grass on its banks
  • Bad River movie: Line 5 of an oil pipeline cutting through the orange and brown waters of the Bad River

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What's the Story?

In BAD RIVER, the Bad River Band of Ojibwe try to fight a huge oil company from continuing to run its pipeline through their land and parts of the Bad River. For years, Enbridge had been running a pipeline through the Bad River, and it threatened to burst and cause an oil spill, just as one of its pipelines did in Kalamazoo in 2010, for which the company had to pay millions in fines. After the company's "lease" expired, the Bad River Band decided not to renew, but Enbridge refused to leave, relocate its pipeline, or make concerted efforts to protect the land the pipeline threatened. Worse, the Bad River flows downstream right into Lake Superior, the world's largest freshwater system by area. Going to trial in 2019, Enbridge continues the operation of its pipeline through the Bad River (because the pipeline makes Enbridge $600 million per year).

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say : Not yet rated
Kids say : Not yet rated

This documentary is an emotionally powerful and effective profile of the Bad River Band Ojibwe people's fight to reclaim and protect their land. Specifically, Bad River highlights the recent contest and continuing fight over whether a huge Canadian oil company, Enbridge, can continue to run one of its pipelines through a piece of the Bad River. When the company's lease ran out in 2019, the Bad River Band decided not to renew it and politely asked Enbridge to leave, as the company was now trespassing on their land. But Enbridge refused. The film strongly shows how justice and even the law is not on the side of the oil company, which continues to insist that it has a right to be there.

Making matters worse, it's clear Enbridge wants what it wants only because of money, and it has a terrible track record for caring about the environment (Enbridge was found liable and fined millions for the Kalamazoo oil spill in 2010 and for piercing multiple aquifers in Northern Minnesota in 2021). Further, the Bad River Band community wants what they want only to protect the environment, the future, and their sovereign rights. The documentary is smart to contextualize their fight with Enbridge in the larger historical context of governments, companies, and people who have invariably taken advantage of Native and Indigenous communities throughout history.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the historical violence committed against Native and Indigenous peoples throughout the past 200 years. Did any of the stories of violence in Bad River surprise you? What are the most shocking examples of this kind of violence?

  • How do people featured in the documentary show courage, integrity, and teamwork? How can a small community fight against a big oil company worth billions?

  • What can other people do to help and support the Bad River Band? How important might social media be in fights like this?

  • What reasons does Enbridge rely on to argue against removing its pipeline through the Bad River? What reasons do the Bad River Band rely on to argue their opinion?

  • Do you agree with the judge at the end of the movie? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

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Bad River movie poster: Two Bad River Band Native people canoe down the bad river with green trees on either side and blue sky above them

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