You could potentially argue that there weren’t that many breakout movies from the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival last year, at least not acquisition titles without distribution. But if you were going to mention one, at the very least, it would undoubtedly have to be “How To Blow Up A Pipeline,” an eco-terrorism thriller from director Daniel Goldhaber (“CAM,” “Some Kind of Heaven”). Critically acclaimed upon its debut, the tastemakers at Neon quickly scooped up the film for North American distribution.
Based on Andreas Malm’s manifesto tackling the climate crisis, “How To Blow Up A Pipeline,” had its World Premiere in the Platform Category at TIFF and received tons of critical acclaim (our review from TIFF here). The film features an all-star ensemble cast with Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth (“Sharp Stick,” “Looking for Alaska”), Lukas Gage (“Euphoria,” “The White Lotus”), Forrest Goodluck (“The Revenant,” “The Miseducation of Cameron Post”), Sasha Lane (“American Honey,” “Conversations with Friends”), Jayme Lawson (“The Batman,” “The Woman King”), Marcus Scribner (“Black-ish,” “The Good Dinosaur”), Jake Weary (“It Follows,” “Animal Kingdom”), Irene Bedard (“Pocahontas,” “Smoke Signals”), and Olive Jane Lorraine (“Jelly”).
“How To Blow Up A Pipeline” follows a crew of young environmental activists who execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline in a taut and timely thriller that is a part high-stakes heist, part radical exploration of direct action as climate activism.
The film was produced, co-written, and starring Ariela Barer (“Runaways,” “Atypical”), co-written by Jordan Sjol, and edited by its director Daniel Garber.
“This is about an impulsive act,” Garber told us in a TIFF interview last year just as the film debuted. “And an impulsive act by characters who feel powerless. And so we’re going to make this movie just as impulsively if we can. And so I think that there’s an ineffable energy in the movie that I think comes from how quickly it was made.”
Neon has set a spring April 7, 2023, date for the film. You can watch the first trailer below.
