THE FILMS
Coral Ghosts 2020 - 85 min (CBC)
Review
Coral Ghosts is a striking documentary about one obsessive man, Dr. Tom Goreau. A scientist specializing in marine life, he comes from a long line of scientific photographers. It’s a tricky story to tell – but well directed by Andrew Nisker – because it’s as much about one man as it is about ecosystems and destruction, but it has force.
- John Doyle - Globe and Mail
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GROUND WAR
GROUND WAR - 2018 85min (CBC)
The Guardian - Article by Aliya Uteuova
Fueled by a quest for answers to what caused his father’s illness and death, Nisker produced a 2018 documentary film called Ground War, exploring his father’s development of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and Nisker’s ultimate determination that despite no clear proof, pesticides were to blame for his death.
Nisker lives in Toronto with his wife and their three sons, aged seven, nine and 18. In the course of making the film, Nisker started worrying what might be sprayed on fields where his children play soccer and baseball.
“Before 2009, they were treating those areas the same way they were treating golf courses, which is sort of horrifying considering that kids are rolling around on playing fields,” Nisker said.
In 2009, Ontario enacted a cosmetic pesticides ban, prohibiting the sale and use of pesticides on lawns, gardens, parks and schoolyards.
“My kids don’t come home after playing soccer and say it was terrible out there, that there’s too many weeds,” Nisker said. “They don’t care and neither should you.”
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CHEMERICAL: REDEFINING CLEAN FOR A NEW GENERATION - 75min (Super Channel, CBC, Netflix)
'Chemerical' explores the life cycle of everyday household cleaners and hygiene products to prove that, thanks to our clean obsession, we are drowning in a sea of toxicity. An average North American family try to turn a new leaf by creating and living in a toxic free home. Seen by over 3 million viewers through NETFLIX, CBC AND SUPER CHANNEL and winner of the audience choice award at Whistler Film Festival. Its outreach program has inspired the removal of over 20,000 toxic cleaning products from homes, helping to clean up watersheds and create safer toxin free environments for hundreds of thousands of children in their homes and schools.
“Filled with humour, scientific facts, animation and music makes a
profound impact." -- School Library Journal
GARBAGE! THE REVOLUTION STARTS AT HOME - 75min (Super Channel, CBC, TVO, Netflix)
Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home is a documentary about how the family household has become one of the most ferocious environmental predators of our time.
Concerned for the future of his son, writer and director Andrew Nisker takes an average urban family, the McDonalds, and asks them to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. He then takes them on a journey to find out where it all goes and what it’s doing to the world.
From organic waste to the stuff they flush down the potty, the plastic bags they use to the water they drink out of bottles, the air pollution they create when transporting the kids around, to using lights at Christmas, the McDonalds discover that for every action there is a reaction that affects them and the entire planet.
“The film is an eyeopener and will make you think about
what you’re leaving out for curbside pickup. Reducing is the new recycling.”
- National Post
DARK SIDE OF THE CHEW - 52 min (TVO)
Dark Side of the Chew is a cinematic first – seen by audiences around the globe, this feature documentary blew the lid off what the gum industry didn’t want you to know about everyone’s favourite sticky habit. Director Andrew Nisker reveals the hidden – and shocking – truths about the impact gum has on our economy, health, and our planet. Premiering on TVO in Canada, the film has also had an iOS app created for it – the GumShoe Map App. The app is a first – it lets its users join a global community of citizens helping quantify gum pollution worldwide.
“Nisker has a modesty about him that’s endearing. It reinforces the inspiring notion that any average Joe if they put their mind and actions to it, like Nisker, can make a difference.
-Parker Mott, Dorkshelf.com