Directed by David Byars
Running time: 1 hour and 36 minutes

by Stacey Osbeck

The release timing of Public Trust, a documentary feature about America’s public lands, couldn’t be more fortuitous if they tried. An unprecedented number of Americans have been cooped up, staring at the same walls for months, yearning for the great outdoors. 

Many documentaries must do the best they can with what they have, but with Robert Redford and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard backing the project, director David Byars had a lot more options at his disposal. Drew Xanthopoulos’s cinematography, most especially the aerial photography, is breathtaking, at times creating a dreamlike sensation. Gliding above vast stretches of untouched wilderness, prairies and wetlands lulls you into a serene feeling of connectedness between all of Earth’s inhabitants. 

Although the images cover a great deal of ground, the story stays focused on three main locales: Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument, Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Advocates clearly have an intimate connection to these places. In seeing the beauty and uniqueness of areas they also recognize their inherent vulnerability to exploitation. Often without sophisticated means, (“I was like what is a hashtag? I didn’t really know what it meant.”) these organizers draw others to mobilize mostly through sheer passion and shared love of the land. 

Something subtle that struck me later was that whether you’re talking about an old black and white TV show or even history books, ‘Cowboys and Indians’ is locked in our minds as a genre where the adversaries are built in, two groups in opposition. Today we’d call them ranchers and Native Americans, but beyond the labels the story between them has also changed. Both are on the same side of this issue and have a vested interest in protecting public lands. A clear narrative begins to flesh out that the struggle is not one people vs. another. The fight here is people vs. corporations. 

These big corporations involve the usual suspects: coal, minerals, oil and gas. Especially egregious were instances of strip mining, big money making their buck and then claiming bankruptcy, leaving polluted waterways for the taxpayers to clean up. Highlighting the fact that, often, the fight is not simply to preserve nature, but also a community’s health. 

I’ve always felt assured that America’s public lands were safe. Public Trust brings to light how shockingly quick those protections can be dismantled. In recent years, politicians who favor big business have begun opening these areas for drilling, mining and the like. One of the saddest losses was the reduction of the Bear’s Ears National Monument by 85% in 2017, an unprecedented rollback. That area of southeastern Utah holds rich ancestral history for several First Nation people. Now some of the new boundary lines cut right through the middle of archeological sites. 

The title’s double entendre touches on a promise made to the American people long ago as well as a currently relevant call to action. We can no longer blindly trust that these places will simply be there for us and future generations, safe and preserved. As frightening as some of the prospects put forth in Public Trust are, I was left with a sense of hope. In a country that is so deeply divided, this film explores perhaps the one issue that all Americans can come together and get behind. 

Public Trust premiers Friday September 25th on YouTube at 8PM EDT.