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The Unforseen

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Considering the environmental SNAFUs here in Alberta, it’s not all that difficult to relate to Laura Dunn’s documentary, The Unforeseen.
Dunn’s second feature (after 2000’s Green) traces the struggle between developers and environmentalists around Austin, Texas—particularly in Barton Springs, a public, spring fed swimming hole that’s borne the burden of nearby construction. The film serves as not so much a warning about the dangers of overdevelopment, but instead provides iron clad proof of them. 
The “star” of the documentary is Gary Bradley, a businessman who built the massive Circle C Ranch in the economic free-for-all that was Texas in the 1980s.
Joining up with the mining corporation Freeport-McMoRan after a disastrous financial run, Bradley found himself at odds with local environmental activists, who correctly predicted that the runoff from their development would destroy Barton Springs and eventually cause problems with the Edwards Aquifier, the areas underground water table.
Earth First! members rallied against Bradley—who availed himself of his partner’s high powered resources and a skilled, professional lobbyist—but the eventual outcome was never in doubt. The Texas Legislature passed a law that managed to squeeze past the rising tide of negative publicity and allow Freeport-McMoRan to do as they saw fit with their property.
The results of their victory shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has witnessed rampant industrial overdevelopment; before and after shots of Barton Springs show the polluting effect of the runoff, including the eventual near destruction of the fish population.
In other hands The Unforeseen might have come across as something of a screeching diatribe, but Dunn’s film is actually a subtle, intricate look at a sad situation.
It’s even surprisingly sympathetic to the “villains”; in her interviews with Bradley he comes across as a broken man, baffled at the way in which his life has turned out.
Political realities are laid out with disarming frankness. Former Democratic governor of Texas Ann Richards—who voted against the bill in question—explains the maze of partisan politics that allowed a demonstrably bad law to be passed.
Even with executive co-producer Robert Redford showing up as an interviewee (he grew up around and swam in Barton Springs as a child) Dunn manages to avoid sentimentalizing the issue.
Instead she shows stark realities that point to the trend to build as much as possible: the ugliness of new developments, the sprawl, the spiritual emptiness.
It’s a beautifully shot film, the camera lingering longer on rich images than conventional for most documentaries—you could almost see executive co-producer Terrence Malick’s hand in the proceedings, though he apparently was hands-off in that regard.