Clean energy becomes a misnomer and a very dirty term in this truly alarming documentary from theatre director Josh Fox (Memorial Day).
From the pristine green wilderness of Fox’s family land in New York State’s Delaware River Basin area to the scenes of near apocalyptic environmental destruction he encounters in America’s heartland, GasLand is a chilling before and after portrait of the effect of natural gas drilling in America.
Thanks to the process of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing – the injection of a toxic concoction of chemicals and water underground to extract natural gas – some water sources have become poisonous. Where gas wells exist, cases of animal sickness and death are common and in scenes reminiscent of the true events behind Erin Brockovich (2000) people are ailing with maladies – brain tumors, cancer and chronic headaches amongst them. Their water – a brown, toxic sludge – is so prevalent with gas that many can set it a light at the faucet.
Unsurprisingly, at a Senate Inquiry the big gas companies, led by that ubiquitous conglomerate of questionable ethics Halliburton, deny that “fracking” is the culprit. What’s more, the practice has been sanctioned by the US Government since the administration of George W. Bush thanks to a loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act.
There’s a barrage of facts and figures to take in in Fox’s engaging documentary and while it’s dense he takes a good stab at extrapolating the key information speaking to a range of experts (a whistle-blowing E.P.A official among them) and a colourful array of everyday Americans affected by the drilling. It’s in their stories of suffering amongst inspirational tenacity and positivity that the full gravity of this tragedy takes hold. The evidence Fox gleans is damning, irrefutable and devastating.
Like the grand daddy of socially themed documentary Michael Moore (Sicko), Fox puts himself in the picture, perhaps a little too obviously at times and at others with amusingly bizarre results – his playing of a banjo in full gas mask at the scene of one gas plant a case in point. But Fox has more reason than most to ingratiate himself such is his personal connection to the issue. He could have earnt himself $US100,000 in gas extraction royalties from his own land – his connection to which, like many other interviewees is inherent and palpable – but instead set out to reveal the cover up of this environmental disaster. It’s a considerable achievement given the complexity of the issue and the adversity Fox faced – some interviewees were too scared to be interviewed on camera and gas companies stonewalled him at every turn.
Be warned, Fox includes several scenes in ‘shaky cam’, that seeming prerequisite of DYI doco chic. It’s largely unnecessary and dizzyingly distracting but it matters little in the end, such is the compelling nature of Fox’s subject, entertainingly explored. Shocking, provocative and poignant, GasLand is in short, compulsive viewing.
GasLand opens nationally in Australia on November 18th.
Director: Josh Fox.
Cast: Josh Fox, Theo Colborn, Wilma Subra, Dee Hoffmeister.
