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NWT - A Northern film raising concerns about the Mackenzie Gas Project is screening at a prestigious international French-language film festival in Montreal this week.

Yellowknife filmmaker France Benoit's recently-released documentary One River, Two Shores: Reflections on the Mackenzie Gas Project, screens at the 27th Rendez-Vous du Cinema Quebecois film festival on Feb. 20.

Alestine Andre of Tsiigehtchic appears in this summer scene from One River, Two Shores: Reflections on the Mackenzie Gas Project. - photo courtesy of France Benoit

Benoit will attend the festival to introduce her film and facilitate audience discussion following the screening.

The film includes voices from around the territory, including Margaret Vandell of Fort Providence, Alestine Andre of Tsiigehtchic and Jerry Antoine of Fort Simpson.

"I sort of see myself as a bridge giving a vehicle to these voices to be heard," she said.

The footage leads audiences on a journey along the river while Benoit's narration and interviews explore the environmental, economic and social implications of the mega project.

Benoit is also accompanying her film to Ottawa to coincide with U.S. President Barack Obama's first international visit since taking the White House last month.

The Sierra Club of Canada is organizing events related to the tar sands industrial development in Alberta in an effort to send a message to the new president.

"The Mackenzie Gas Project does not depend solely on the tar sands and vice versa, but there is a link in the sense that if the Mackenzie Gas Project was built a portion of it would definitely go (to the tar sands)," Benoit said, adding she hopes the Ottawa gathering will "encourage Barack Obama to go for low carbon fuel emissions, meaning that (the U.S.) would not be purchasing oil from the tar sands."

Many Canadian environmentalists are buoyed by Obama's comments about the future of oil dependency in his country, including a statement he made in an energy policy speech in Las Vegas last summer in which he labeled oil "a 19th-century fossil fuel that is dirty, dwindling, and dangerously expensive."

Benoit said she, too, is hopeful Obama will discourage increased development in the tar sands.

"I think Barack Obama will take a strong position on the tar sands and anything associated with the tar sands will be painted with the same paint brush," she said. "I think we in the NWT can't be complacent about (the Mackenzie Gas Project). We need to be consistent. What I mean by that is we can't on one hand decry the damage (the tar sands) is doing to our health and environment, especially with water and air pollution and the downstream effect, and build a project that we know is going to help fuel it. If not all of it at least some of it. We can't have it both ways in the NWT. That's become clear to me doing this film."