“Bad River” (2024) Review

There’s a case to be made for how Bad River approaches an immediate problem with a broad sense of history. The presence of a pipeline threatening the Bad River Reservation in Wisconsin looks like a clear case of fighting back against a corporation threatening the environment. In a perfect world, the aged pipeline that could pollute Lake Superior would be promptly removed. But we don’t. We live in a world where topics like this get buried in court, and the sovereignty of Native Americans is subjugated for the sake of energy.

But as the elders of the Bad River tribe state in this documentary, this is a fight worth dying for. There’s a high likelihood that many of the tribe will not live to see this pipeline repaired, removed, or possibly ever burst for the damage it will bring to fresh waters. So, what can you do in this situation? Director Mary Mazzio aims to spread awareness of the history of the tribe while highlighting the fight of the present. That’s a risky gamble, considering how easy it would be for a topic like this to get lost in the grand history of Native Americans that might eclipse the current legal battle. While it does stray here and there, all of it ties together in a documentary that expresses what is really at stake.

Mazzio’s film paints a more vivid picture of the struggles with Bad River versus bad business. There are plenty of Native Americans interviewed for this subject and most of them approach this subject with bitterness and bluntness, not afraid to make their concerns known. We get to see not only the dangers of the pipeline, but the glory of the waters and how they’ve been preserved. It’s not easy to ensure the environment is still plentiful with fish, but the surrounding community has worked hard to ensure nature’s longevity. All of that, however, could come crashing down quickly if the pipes burst, and an oil spill ruins this land forever. As the film displays in its gorgeous shots, natural preservation is something worth the work, be in ensuring the lake’s fish population is plentiful or that big oil keeps their big pipes out of our big lakes.

Some solid style choices keep the eyes locked on this issue. The courtroom battle is portrayed with animated sketches that literally paint a picture of how frustrating the pipeline presence has become from a legal standpoint. Special credit goes to Bad River students who came up with the designs and animation team PunkRobot, bringing them to life. Couple this with the music provided by Mato Wayuhi doing hip-hop and Shep Crawford handling the score and there’s more going on here than a by-the-numbers documentary, making sure this won’t become lost in the shuffle of the mounting immediacy of America’s greatest issues. It’s not enough to be loud; you have to be loud with lyrics, and this picture has the style of singing with a clarion call to young people.

Bad River serves as an important doc not just for the issue but the necessity of perseverance. By the end of the film, the many members of Bad River speak towards the next generation. They talk about bravery and how this is a fight worth continuing, as the ancestors will always be present amid this struggle for keeping waters free of pollution and full of fish. Young people face an uncertain future and it can seem daunting facing a new storm of existential threats the likes of which no generation has seen before. But history has always been full of struggles, as shown in this film. Rather than use that fact to the next generation to suck it up, Bad River resonates with poetic words and visuals about what is at stake and what is worth fighting for.