Playing Dirty
If you have not seen Gasland, take some time to watch it. You can view it on HBO, or purchase from Amazon. The trailer can be seen here: Gasland Trailer.
Now this movie has made its way to the Oscars and as exciting as that is, the Natural Gas Industry is now in full attack form doing whatever it takes to tear this nomination apart.
This works because people that see this movie are touched. They are touched because they have been directly affected by hydraulic fracturing or they want to be a voice for those that have been and don’t want to become a silent statistic as well.
Energy In Depth, a group sponsored by a coalition of natural gas companies, sent a letter to the Academy asking that Gasland — a film about a controversial mining technique called hydro-fracking — be removed from the Documentary Feature category.
It is a good thing that they are reacting so publicly, as they are bringing far more attention to the film and the issue at hand. Josh issued an open letter to the media today, responding to the natural gas industries attempt to slam Gasland. You can read Josh’s letter here on in our Facebook Notes “An Open Letter from Josh Fox.” (editor’s note 2 Aug 2023: Facebook does not get archived. See articles below that refer to the open letter.)
Azita Ardakani. Playing Dirty: Gasland vs. the Industry. 25 Feb 2011. Huff Post.
We signed on to work closely with Josh Fox and his team to help disseminate this message because it needs to go as far reaching as possible to create the change in policies that are direly needed. This wouldn’t work if it was a one sided mission for entertainment purposes. This works because people that see this movie and are touched. They are touched because they have been directly affected by hydraulic fracturing or they want to be a voice for those that have been and don’t want to become a silent statistic as well. The citizens of affected areas began participating in the conversation, many posting photos of their polluted water, or personal health horror stories on the Facebook wall. Others use it as a place to get petitions signed when their homes are considered hot beds for drilling, and they need to take preliminary action.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/playing-dirty-gasland-vs_b_828233
See also: Paul Hond. The Gas Menagerie. Summer 2012. Columbia Magazine.
The emissary is Josh Fox ’95CC, a theater director and filmmaker whose movie Gasland pushed fracking onto the national stage. Ever since Gasland aired on HBO in the summer of 2010, Fox has spent much time in front of microphones in shale-striding states — at colleges, rallies, concerts, town meetings, and anyplace else where people come together to oppose gas drilling. Advocates of fracking tout jobs (for engineers, welders, pipefitters, food-service workers, lawyers, realtors), energy independence, a cleaner-burning alternative to coal and oil, lower energy costs, and, through the leasing of mineral rights, financial relief for people who really need it. The industry says fracking is safe. Yet to Fox, the whole thing seems absurd, surreal, a tragedy made ridiculous by the “what could possibly go wrong?” setup and an all-too-foreseeable denouncement.
https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/gas-menagerie
Join our communities on Twitter & Facebook and become apart of this conversation, it is one of the most important that you will have.
Azita Ardakani {Founder of Lovesocial}
Edit-Neil Zusman, 2011-02-10
See: Energy in Depth | Mixplex
See: Gasland – The Debate
