GasLand

Allow me to alleviate your initial trepidation. "GasLand" is not another documentary about the oil industry. You're on the right track, but first-time feature director Josh Fox has his sights set not on the gas you pump into your car, but the so called "natural gas" extracted from beneath your feet through the process of hydraulic fracturing known colloquially as "fracking."

Issue films, like "Food, Inc." or "An Inconvenient Truth" are notoriously dry, and Fox takes a welcome page from the Michael Moore book of documentary film-making, without the hard leftist political grandstanding. Rather, he adopts the format of painting himself a protagonist of sorts, though more justifiably than Moore. "GasLand" begins with an intimate history of the Fox family and their home, which lies just off of an artery to the Delaware River.

Positioned above the Marcellus Shale, a subterranean formation that stretches from New York through Pennsylvania to Virginia, and as far west as Ohio, the Fox home receives a lease offer for their land, a constituent slice of what energy companies have dubbed the "Saudi Arabia of natural gas," and so Fox embarks for some first hand reconnaissance on the communities already tapped by hydraulic fracturing, and his findings are nothing short of alarming.

The chemicals used in the fracking process seep into the soil and water supply, leaving many families with bizarre aberrations like flammable tap water. Uh oh. And as Fox makes his way across the country, into dozens of areas crippled by decade-past drilling efforts, he collects bottles of yellow-brown water like postcards in some macabre travel diary.

If there is a problem with "GasLand," it's that as a story, it becomes a little redundant as we watch family after family set fire to their sinks, but perhaps all the more resonant for it. From a film-making standpoint, the effect is marginalized, but in making something so shocking feel almost normal, Fox underscores the breadth of the issue. This is happening everywhere, and with such clear evidence of the immediate health hazards, the question is, why?

Fox's intimate approach and genuine stake in the issue is "GasLand's" greatest asset. He never has to rely on talking heads or PowerPoint presentations, and even at nearly two hours, the film is positively gripping. His story comes full circle as he returns home, faced with the "speculative" fracking of the Delaware watershed, which provides water to rural towns, suburbs, and cities. The implication is truly disquieting, and Fox can only ask that the public make themselves aware of the issue and take a stand before it's too late.

His film is an excellent place to start, and manages to entertain while outlining the severity of the problem, and to do so without an over-reliance on the pitfalls of so many of its contemporaries. "GasLand" is just about everything you could hope for from a documentary of its type, and its Sundance special jury prize is testament to its impact.

The film has yet to see general release, but a distribution deal is reportedly immanent. Interested parties can join the mailing list and watch a potent 15 clip at www.gaslandthemovie.com.

Ignore that initial trepidation. "GasLand" isn't another documentary about the oil industry, but it's just as important, if not more so.

This documentary shows how corporate greed, without any concern for anything other than making a profit, is destroying one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world: the United States.

As another reviewer said, it's not about gas as in gasoline, but about how oil and gas companies are polluting the environment through a process called hydraulic fracturing, used in the extraction of natural gas.

The film is filled with unmistakable and undeniable evidence that this process is in fact forever altering not only the landscape in several states, but also their wild life as well as the health of regular individuals permanently. The images and testimonies shown will blow you away and you'll come out with a very different awareness level on what it means to be "enviromentally conscious".

I found it really gut-wrenching and I guarantee you you won't be able to get through to the end of it without wanting to go and do something about it.

We've seen in a number of different films how powerful industries will do anything to protect their interests and keep people quiet about their lies and methods for keeping the general public deceived about what they really do. What's really striking here is that is happening for real, in congress, and not in a movie.

The other aspect I found really positive is that the filmmaker tried hard to remain as objective as possible, which is more than I can say about any Michael Moore documentary.Everyone is given a chance to tell their part of the story and the audience is left to decide what to make of everything being said and shown.

I highly recommend it. You'll need a strong constitution to get through it; it's not for the faint of heart. But it'll be a very rewarding experience and hopefully one that will make you cringe every time you see a gas drill across your front yard.

This film is a much needed warning about the unsafe conditions around hydraulic fracturing. Anyone who doesn't see that clearly is obviously making money on hydraulic fracturing! Can we learn nothing from the current poisoning of the ocean due to unsafe practices in oil drilling? These companies only concern is profit- at all cost. As this film demonstrates and the current events show- poisoning the world around them is an acceptable risk for maximum profit. If not, why would they continue to campaign for the hydraulic fracturing (or Fracking) of the Marcellus Shale? (and the rest of the United States...)

Fracking is especially dangerous for New York City because the city gets its water from the Adirondacks. Currently, fracking is not allowed in the NYC watershed part of the Marcellus Shale which stretches from upstate NY to Tennessee. In addition to the problems with toxic chemicals injected into the ground with fracking, the Marcellus Shale is radioactive so that waste from fracking contains low levels of radioactivity.

I would love to see those reviewers trying to debunk this film drink the water coming from the faucets of so many homes shown in the film. Water that is flammable straight from the sink! Authorities defending fracking as harmless refuse to drink the water offered them in the film and so would those narrow minded negative reviewers. (Or should I say profiteering propagandists... what's your day rate for writing these reviews?)

Wind and sunlight is free and can be harnessed to produce the energy we need to keep the world moving without poisoning our water and air. Let's suck it up and make a change! It will take money and time and mean less profit for some but there is a bigger picture to consider.

Call Albany and ask them to not poison New York's drinking water by supporting the Englebright/Adabo bill. The number is 518-455-2800.

Give the operator your zip code and she'll transfer you to your senator's office

Tell them you'd like him or her to advocate for the Englebright/Adabo bill. The deadline is June 25th or close to it!

Politicians constantly use the word terrorism as a license to do whatever they want. I believe those politicians who support this behavior are actually accomplices to some of the most outrageous terrorist activity against the American people! If the Taliban were poisoning our water would we not do something about it? But when a corporation poisons the water government heads look the other way? for the almighty dollar? WAKE UP! STAND UP! DO SOMETHING!

Provided with much details on the fracking of the oil industry and much opinions on the subject, GasLand succeeded of trying to inform the audience yet entertain them at the same time.

Although laws have been passed to get rid of this issue, hydraulic drilling is still a concern for people in the certain states. This documentary sets in Pennsylvania, a state in which a lot of people are drinking dirty water because of this crisis. Josh Fox directs and narrates the film with a devastating voice and real emotions. The audience were shocked by the reality and entertained by the burning water. GasLand is the better documentaries of the year.

OscarBuzz: Best Documentary (good chance of making it to the top 5)

I learned a lot watching this movie. I guess I thought gas just came out of the ground without much effort -- kind of like farts! But no. Lots of chemicals involved, lots of semi trucks and a true raping of the land with horrific byproducts for the nearby residents to breathe, drink and live (and die) with. Makes me want to get off natural gas altogether. Or at least drastically limit my use.

This was a informative, well done documentary. Not nearly as much overt sarcasm as Michael Moore, lots of information (on the screen, in print people!) and a bit of irony and humor to sweeten the swallowing of such disturbing information. This was an important piece of film. Everyone in America who uses natural gas to heat their home, hot water heater, range or grill should see this.