GASLAND (USA 2010) ***
Directed by Josh Fox

Upset and shocked by what the natural gas companies have done to his land, the one-man crusade Josh Fox embarks to tell the world what is happening and to hopefully make thing right.  The result is a documentary that tells its story in pretty much the same way as films like AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, LAND, FUEL, but still hits its point effectively home.

Basically, the documentary states its case.  In GASLAND, the American rural landowners receive an offer, as Fox did (making enough of a handsome sum) to lease their property.  The companies pump chemicals beneath the surface to extract natural gas (called fracking) and its products only to leave the water contaminated and the surroundings a wasteland.  Then, the doc goes about interviewing those affected, the company officials who will deny any wrong doing and then change its tone from educational to caution to anger and disbelief as to what has happened.

Director Fox has two shocking images that he milks fully to make his point loud and clear.  First is the flammability of the contaminated water.  Putting a lit match to the water, whether flowing from the tap or bubbling out of a stream, the result is identical – the bursting of the light into a huge flame.  This experiment is repeated a couple of times, forgivable as the audience roots for the director. The second is the images of the contaminated brooks and stream – all blue and purple with dead wild life that used to habitate in the area.

Most of the subjects chosen as interviewees are victims rather than famous people.  But these often sick (physically and mentally) people have effective moving stories to tell.  The heads of various organizations are also selected.  One keeps insisting that his company will ensure all people affected by the bad water will be replaced with good drinking water.  Fox who interviews him tells him then that all rivers and brooks can now be replaced by water cisterns.  When asked what brooks and rivers are affected, pretending that this is the first time hearing this, Fox replies that they are the ones on his land.
Dick Cheney and George W. Bush once again become easy targets for blame.  Fox targets them and show that they are to blame.

Every month or so, a documentary like GASLAND appears to warn the world of the dangers that has been done to the environment as a result of the US government and corporations.  There are too many such docs implying that the planet has been abused, contaminated and wasted to an irreversible degree.  A big thank you, to the Bush Administration!

GASLAND won the Special Jury prize at Sundance for best documentary.  Well deserved, GASLAND would therefore be seen by a wider audience and rightly so.  GASLAND is very scary but the truth often is.