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On April 20, 2010 the United States saw the beginning of one of the worst environmental disasters in its history: the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig off the coast of Louisiana. Spilling almost 185 million gallons of oil over the course of 86 days, the explosion of the rig caused a leak one mile below the surface of the ocean. With their new film, “The Big Fix”, Josh and Rebecca Tickell take a detailed look at the historical events which led up to the disaster and document how BP, with the help of the US Government, has tried to cover up the disaster in order to placate a panicked public. The Tickells’ film is a shocking expose of one of the world’s biggest corporation’s attempt to minimize and conceal the extent of the disaster. Having grown up in Louisiana, Josh Tickell outlines the state’s deeply intertwined history with the oil industry. He also takes a close look at the evolution of the BP corporation, which tried to rebrand itself in 2001 as an environmentally conscious institution while simultaneously cutting costs by eliminating safety measures. BP in its quest for greater profits deliberately ignored the warning signs of an impending explosion, in order to allow the rig to drill faster. The FDA swooped in almost immediately after the explosion to assure people that seafood was safe to consume using such “scientific” methods as smell tests, even as wildlife was seen dying more than 200 miles away. Desperate to contain the situation, BP donated tens of millions of dollars to universities near the region to have “independent” scientists from academia convince the public that oil eating bacteria would clean up the mess. Meanwhile, in an attempt to diminish the actual amount of oil that was spilled, the company dumped millions of gallons of Corexit, a highly toxic oil dispersant which is banned in England. Like Agent Orange being dropped from the skies of Vietnam, BP air dropped Corexit over the oil slick which simply spread it further over the ocean. When the company finally claimed to have stopped using Corexit, Tickell documented workers dumping the toxic chemical under cover of the night. Now, over a year later, despite BP and the US Government’s claims that the oil is completely cleared, independent researchers are still finding oil pooled on the sea floor and residents living in the area have been noticing fresh leaks.

GUESTS: Josh and Rebecca Tickell, Josh Tickell’s earlier films include Fuel, and Freedom, focusing on alternatives to oil

Find out about future screenings in Los Angeles at www.thebigfixmovie.com.