Pulp Friction is a documentary film about people, places and the global economy. The film was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada as part of a long-term research project dealing with the new economy and northern communities.

The film looks at the lives of people living in the shadow of a pulp mill in three communities. It opens with Terrace Bay, Ontario, where the mill was spared the wrecking ball by an Indian multinational and people know how close them came to losing their town. Then, viewers are taken to Kemijärvi, Finland where the northern-most pulp mill in the world, and the community that depended on it, were not so lucky. The film ends up on Fray Bentos, Uruguay, a country without natural forests but where one million hectares of eucalyptus plantations feed an enormous modern pulp mill that is changing everything.  This is a story of globalization and how the lives of people on different parts of the world are bound together by an industry that knows no borders. The film is in English, French, Finnish, and Spanish. With mill closures a fact of life across Canada, this is a timely look at how the pulp industry shapes our world and impacts our communities.
Click here to watch Pulp Friction in English or Spanish now.

“To say the film is fascinating would be an understatement.” – Ryan Mackett, Chronical-Journal