Nearly every year, a documentary filmmaker bursts out of Sundance with their debut film. And after an opening weekend dominated by veterans, on Thursday it was beginning to appear that that filmmaker may be Josh Fox.
When Fox, whose day job is founder and Artistic Director of Manhattan's International WOW theater company, was approached to lease his family's land for natural gas exploration, he decided to investigate the issue of natural gas drilling in a first-person doc, GASLAND. And by all appearances, it's becoming one of the most talked about and highly praised films in the US documentary competition. indieWIRE even has it ranked as the top critics choice amongst all competition titles (foreign and domestic, narrative and nonfiction) thus far.
Writing behind Variety's paywall, Robert Koehler leads the charge:
"Who could have anticipated that one of the most effective and expressive environmental films of recent years would be the work of a Gotham theater director who's never before made a doc? Nobody, perhaps least writer-director Josh Fox, whose GASLAND may become to the dangers of natural gas drilling what "Silent Spring" was to DDT. The rare example of cinema art that is also an organizing tool, the pic has a level of research, gutsiness and energy that should generate sensational response everywhere it plays. Distribs with a social conscience have a gem to buy, if they dare...
Once Fox learns that his beloved Delaware River watershed is being targeted by drillers as part of the massive Marcellus Shale field, he goes on the road to track down residents living near drilling sites. This is seat-of-pants investigating that yields astonishing and disturbing findings, not least of which is how the residents can customarily light a flame near their tap water outlet and set the polluted water on fire. As Fox ventures west, to Colorado, Wyoming and Texas, states riddled with natural gas drill sites, he documents horror story after horror story."
Twittering after Thursday's screening, From the Hip's Ingrid Kopp wrote: "I'm so pleased about standing ovation for GASLAND. My surprise favorite of the festival!" Hammer to Nail's Michael Tully predicted: "After today I have a gut hunch that GASLAND will win doc (prize)".
Earlier in the week, Eric Kohn offered: "Josh Fox (MEMORIAL DAY) has crafted a masterpiece of activism with GASLAND, which makes a glass of water seem like a salient threat."
Sean Means gives the film 3 1/2 stars the SLC Tribune:
"Fox visits a nearby town where natural gas drilling is already happening, using a technology called "hydraulic fracturing" or "fracking" — and meets people whose drinking water has become so contaminated they can set their kitchen taps on fire. Fox, armed with a banjo and a droll sense of humor, investigates the environmental dangers of "fracking" and raises heartfelt questions about what energy companies are doing to the national soul in the name of chasing money."
indieWIRE profiles and interviews Fox.
God-willing--a national spotlight will now shine on the communities where this is happening. Kudos to Josh Fox for going back to his hometown, seeing a problem, and choosing to harness his talents to do something about it. GO JOSH GO!
Michelle
http://endlessmountains.blogspot.com
Posted by: Michelle Corey | January 30, 2010 at 10:18 AM
Where can we see Gasland in NYC? Where is it playing? I want to share the information with everyone possible and see the movie?
Posted by: Anne Lazarus | February 01, 2010 at 07:11 AM
Hope Josh will make a sequel and include Ohio. We have a lot of problems here with gas drilling. Our laws here are so lax that we have had wells drilled in the last two years very close to homes and schools--in one case, 100 feet from an apartment buidling and 210 feet from an elementary school. Water wells have been polluted, neighborhoods have been ruined, and communities have been split over this issue by unscrupulous landmen who get people to sign leases without informing them of the hazards of gas/oil drilling.
-Ron Prosek, Northeast Ohio Gas Accountability Project
www.neogap.org
Posted by: Ron prosek | February 24, 2010 at 07:03 PM
There is a lot going on now in regard to domestic natural gas reserves and there is a movie out there which does a good job of portraying the potential role that (responsibly produced} natural gas can play in our clean energy future. It is called Haynesville and has screen at Sheffield, COP-15 and SXSW.
Website: http://www.haynesvillemovie.com/
Posted by: Enki09 | March 27, 2010 at 08:52 AM
Hi My name is Dorothy and i live in blue knob pa.just this winter a gas well was drilled acrossed from our house wedid not know much about gas drilling and now they are putting in a fracking dam in a field acoss the road from us i want to know how this is going to effect our well water coul tou please up date on this matter thank you .
Posted by: Dorothy J Holland | April 14, 2010 at 09:16 AM