Produced and Directed by Rita Baghdadi and Jeremiah Hammerling
Available for educational use: www.bullfrogfilms.com/newreleases.html
Between 2011 and 2014, oil drilling in rural North Dakota reached an historical peak, setting off a modern day gold rush of Wild West proportions. With billions of dollars to be gained, the state mandated very little regulation and soon the oil companies took over. Towns became overwhelmed by an influx of workers and hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland were repurposed for industrial development. Trenton, North Dakota (pop. 278) is at the epicenter of this boom.
28-year-old Kalie Rider and her older brother Jed strive to bring back farming in the family, having suffered the loss of their parents’ farm as part of the traumatic 1980s farm crisis. When their uncle makes a regretful business decision to sell a piece of land, it sets off a domino effect of industrialization. Now, with the church land up for grabs, the community becomes riven by competing interests and contaminated by greed. While Kalie organizes and resists, her brother Jed faces the possibility of having to uproot his young family and move away.
MY COUNTRY NO MORE explores the rise and fall of the North Dakota oil boom through the intimate lens of one family fighting for their agricultural way of life. Through its lyrical core, the film challenges the notion of "progress" as it questions the long term human consequences of short term approaches to land use, decisions that ultimately affect all Americans, rural and urban alike.
