Josh Fox was offered a $100,000 signing bonus with ongoing royalties if he would lease his land for natural gas drilling, a procedure that would include something called fracking. Fracking is a process in which chemicals, sand and other materials are forced into rock far beneath the surface in order to extrude the natural gas for energy. Recording his exploits uncovering the problems that fracking was wreaking across the nation, Fox has directed an incredible saga of natural resource destruction, of sick and terrified people, and of a deadly process that has left dead animals and blighted landscape in its wake. The feel of the film is definitely first person, lending it an intimate, personal quality. The interviews all feel natural and genuine, possibly due to Fox's ability to capture the essence of the person's plight on film.
Josh Fox Scrutinizes Fracking and the Devastating Potential Cost
The notorious Halliburton was the developer of the fracking process. It appears to work, but is it safe? This was the question that drove Fox across the country to search for information. In more than one scene, Fox captures people whose water is so toxic that it can be set ablaze with a match. In another scene, a family relates their fear that their home might explode. Others must now have all their water brought in by containers. Whether he is witnessing dead fish, dying streams or the freezer of a woman who has frozen dead wildlife for future proof of toxicity, Fox captures his journey on film and takes the viewer on the trip.
Gasland is an Entertaining, Riveting Account of the Energy Crunch
From the perspective of a glimpse of Americana, the film is engaging. Watching the pronouncements of people who are experiencing a sense of helplessness as the land and lifestyle they have long taken as a give is suddenly ripped from under them reveals a unique view of the people of the U.S. The images of land farms devoid of life, of gas equipment against the sacred resting places of ancestors, of country people whose lives have been overtaken by corporate interests leaves the viewer a bit in shock. Add in a little banjo bluegrass, a little bit of the America landscape, and a great storyteller, and you have a film that must be seen. Award winner at the Sundance Film Festival.
- DVD, 2010
- HBO film
- Movie site
- Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize
- Sarasota International Film Festival Special Jury Prize
- Yale Environmental Film Festival Grand Jury Prize
- Big Sky Film Festival Artistic Vision Award
- Thin Line Film Festival Audience Award
Barbara DeGrande - Barbara DeGrande is a writer, film critic, and blogger, with years of experience as a program developer. She has a Bachelor of Arts in ...
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