Gasland DVD

Gasland DVD

Cast: Josh Fox
Director: Josh Fox
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 110 minutes

Part vérité travelogue, part exposé, part mystery, part showdown, Gasland is a compelling and emotional first-person story of discovery and, ultimately, empowerment. Gasland was awarded the Special Jury Prize for Documentary when it premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and has since collected a host of international awards, most recently receiving a 2011 Academy Award® nomination for Best Documentary (Feature).

Gasland's limited Australian theatrical release by Palace Films garnered a Box Office result of over $150,000.

In September 2008 theatre director Josh Fox received a letter from a natural gas company, offering him $100,000 for permission to explore his upstate New York property. Rather than blindly signing on the dotted line, Josh's curiosity compelled him to start asking questions. He soon discovered that in the race for 'cleaner', greener and more efficient energy sources, the largest natural gas drilling boom in history has resulted in an environmental disaster of shocking proportions - flammable water that can be ignited right out of the sink, chronically ill residents of drilling areas all with the same mysterious symptoms, pools of toxic waste that kill cattle and vegetation, well blowouts and gas explosions - and the US government has not only turned a blind eye, it has regulated itself out of the picture.

Gasland is a desperate plea for scrutiny of a powerful industry that has turned its focus on a new and largely unexplored territory: Australia, where hydraulic fracturing, known here as 'coal seam exploration', is also the method used for natural gas extraction.

The controversial Halliburton-led process of gas extraction has made national news in Australia as the burgeoning practice continues to spread. In Queensland three coal seam exploration projects have recently been given a green light, and farmers are witnessing a growing number of gas mines dotting their land. It is believed by some that Queensland will have up to 40,000 coal seam wells by 2030. Natural gas exploration and extraction projects have also commenced in metropolitan Sydney and rural NSW.

On his theatrical PR tour in late 2010, Josh Fox visited and filmed in NSW's Hunter Valley and areas of rural Queensland, and has now announced his plans to create a trilogy of environmental films based on natural gas drilling.

Unsurprisingly, the natural gas industry in Australia is lobbying hard against the film's findings, and hundreds of grassroots organisations have sprouted up to campaign against fracking and natural gas mining.

Special Features:
Over 45 minutes of bonus scenes
Interview with director Josh Fox from ABC1's At The Movies
Theatrical trailer

Gasland
www.madman.com.au