Alberta's Oil Sands - Centuries In The Making

The documentary follows the historic path by which the Alberta oil sands went from discovery to economically viable production. First technologically, and then socially and environmentally, the industry has moved onto the threshold of widespread development.

As early as 1883 extracting the oil from the sand was attempted. Scientists working out of a tiny university basement laboratory made the first breakthrough in the 1920s. In the following decades the increasing need for petroleum resulted in the entrepreneurial trial and error, and determined advancement until today Canada has become one of the world’s top oil supplying countries.