First Nations: Firestarter

In 2001 a surveying team in Canada discovered a massive underground deposit of chromium, a metal essential to industrial society. Properly exploited, the find -- named the "Ring of Fire" -- would make Canada one of the largest chromium producers in the world. The only problem: the Ring of Fire is located on First Nations tribal land in northern Ontario, a wilderness area so remote that a billion-dollar transportation network would be necessary in order to set up mining operations. Told through interviews with tribal chiefs, business leaders, politicians and environmentalists, "First Nations: Firestarter" examines the controversies, risks and possible rewards that would come from exploiting the Ring of Fire, a project that promises prosperity for the impoverished First Nations peoples even as it threatens the sensitive ecosystem that has sustained them for generations.

• documentary