Emmy Award winning "Split Estate" to air this weekend on Planet Green

For more information including air dates, click HERE.

SPLIT ESTATE documentary wins Emmy Award, special rebroadcast upcoming on Planet Green

SPLIT ESTATE wins an Emmy for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research."

Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine having little recourse, other than accepting an unregulated industry in your backyard. Split Estate maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health.

Zeroing in on Garfield County, Colorado, and the San Juan Basin, this clarion call for accountability examines the growing environmental and social costs to an area now referred to as a "National Sacrifice Zone."

This is no Love Canal or Three Mile Island. With its breathtaking panoramas, aspen-dotted meadows, and clear mountain streams, this is the Colorado of John Denver anthems -- the wide-open spaces that have long stirred our national imagination.

Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left this idyllic landscape and its rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. One Garfield County resident demonstrates the degree of benzene contamination in a mountain stream by setting it alight with a match. Many others, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children. All the while, the industry assures us it is a "good neighbor."

Ordinary homeowners and ranchers absorb the cost. Actually, we all pay the price in this devastating clash of interests that extends well beyond the Rockies. Aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states, the industry is even making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions.

As public health concerns mount, Split Estate cracks the sugarcoating on an industry touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels, and poignantly drives home the need for real alternatives.

Watch the trailer for the documentary, and don't miss a special airing October 16 at 10 p.m. on Planet Green.

Meet the Split Estate activists, and take a look at a slideshow on drilling for oil.

Press release as published on PLANET GREEN'S website. 

Farmers take up camera against fracking practice

"They’ve been labeled “farmers turned filmmakers,” but it’s what Jeff and Jodi Andrysick felt they had to do with their $10,000.

The couple, native Pennsylvanians, set aside the money for a multi-vendor farm market where they live in Keuka Lake, N.Y., in Finger Lakes country. But the fight against fracking became more pressing, so the money went to a high-definition camcorder.

This led to “All Fracked Up,” a documentary they made to rally people against fracking and what it could do to their areas. The couple was in Pennsylvania on Friday promoting the film, which will debut at the BTE Theatre in Bloomsburg, at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 2. Admission is $5, and they’ll host a discussion after the movie.

It all began when “a predatory gas corporation” — the Andrysicks’ lawyer advised them against using the name — tried to dump what is believed to be three-quarters of a billion gallons of toxic waste into an abandoned gas well in Pulteney, N.Y. The waste came from a drill site in Pennsylvania.

“We figured if Pennsylvania doesn’t want it there, why should we take it?” Jeff Andrysick said.

The people of the region successfully fought it back, and the Andrysicks want Pennsylvanians to know they can do the same.

“The gas corporations prey on ignorance,” said Jeff Andrysick, saying they play a smoke-and-mirrors game to get people and towns to buy into what they do."

Read the remaining text of Evamarie Socha's article by clicking here:  THE DAILY ITEM (as it appeared 9.24.2010).

GASLAND premiers TONIGHT on HBO

Don't miss tonight's premier of GASLAND on HBO at 9pm!  Following the premier, filmmaker Josh Fox will appear on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show.  

Next week: SPLIT ESTATE comes to Gaines, PA.

Wednesday, May 19 @ 7pm there will be a community showing of the riveting documentary SPLIT ESTATE..  The event will take place at the Pine Creek Methodist Church in Gaines, PA.  The church is located on the north side of US route 6 between Gaines and Galeton, PA, just east of the Potter/Tioga county line. 

Governor of New Mexico and former presidential candidate Bill Richardson had this to say about the documentary:  “’Split Estate’ is an eye-opening examination of the consequences and conflicts that can arise between surface land owners in the western United States, and those who own and extract the energy and mineral rights below. This film is of value to anyone wrestling with rational, sustainable energy policy while preserving the priceless elements of cultural heritage, private enterprise above-ground, and the precious health not only of people but the land itself.”

GASLAND picked up by HBO!

Don't worry if you didn't make tonight's showing of GASLAND in Williamsport. It's not only appearing in several other area towns in the next month (click HERE for the schedule), but HBO has picked it up as well!  You can't ask for a bigger national stage than that!  While HBO doesn't have any info on their own site yet, you can read about it HERE.  Debut is scheduled for June 21st. Keep posted!

Don't forget: GASLAND documentary coming to Williamsport on Tuesday!

Don't miss the only showing in the Williamsport area of Josh Fox's prize-winning documentary GASLAND.  The film was honored at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival this past January and has continued to win rave reviews at smaller film festivals across the country.  


Need an even better reason to go?  Meet the man behind the movie:  
Josh Fox will be on hand for a discussion to follow the film.


WHEN:  Tuesday, May 11th @ 7:30pm
WHERE: Williamsport's Community Arts Center, 202 West 4th Street.
Click HERE for driving directions from your doorstep. 
Admission is FREE thanks to sponsorship from the Responsible Drilling Alliance.  

GASLAND Leads Critics Poll @ Sundance Film Festival

Hopefully this is the start of a huge spotlight on the careless--and in some cases outrageous--actions taken and decisions made in the rush to extract natural gas as quickly and inexpensively as possible. Kudos to PA native and filmmaker Josh Fox for drawing attention to the horrible reality that has come to so many communities in our area--and indeed across the country--all in the name of corporate wealth.

'GasLand' Leads Critics Poll - indieWIRE

Gasland...the Movie!

I recently learned that our collective story is about to hit the Big Screen.  As in Sundance Film Festival.  Filmmaker Josh Fox calls our area home and when he heard about the drilling coming to town, he decided to put his skills to work.  The result is a documentary--featuring footage and interviews from Dimock, PA and other communities in 24 states--and detailing the largest natural gas drilling operation in our nation's history.  The film is scheduled to appear at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival later this month.

Find out more by checking out the film's official website.  Below is a teaser...you can find more trailers at his site, Water Under Attack.

CAN YOU DO THIS WITH YOUR TAP WATER? from JOSHFOX on Vimeo.

Please note that I have *not* seen the film but am anxious to do so!