Gasland effectively conveys how serious the threat to the environment is from fracking without confusing the viewer with complex statistics. The facts and figures it does contain are presented in ways that allow the viewer to fully digest what the implications are while also capturing the audience's attention as the facts associated with environmental risks of fracking would astonish any viewer. The visual aid that a documentary brings is also helpful in encouraging the audience to have a specific point of view. It allows the viewer to witness firsthand the environmental effects that fracking is having, such as water contamination, land destruction, alteration of the geological formations and aesthetically displeasing drilling pads. Visual evidence is extremely powerful at convincing the viewer of what is fact, Josh Fox uses this to his advantage by providing recordings, from numerous households, of tap water being lit on fire after a fracking drilling pad caused a contamination in the water source. The style that the documentary is made in (a road trip diary) lets the viewer become immersed in the story, as though they are travelling with Fox on this adventure through South America. It allows them to experience the interest, shock and devastation that Fox goes through in this documentary, connecting the audience to the issue of fracking on an emotional level. The interview aspect of the documentary portrays the personal experience of those affected by fracking and of those associated with the process, which builds confidence in the viewer that the information they are gaining is genuine.

Ever wonder what would happen if an educated filmmaker who knew many, many things about a certain subject were to make a documentary on the specific subject and conduct it along the lines of an extremely independent, intimate, mumblecore film? Josh Fox fulfills the demand and possibly creates a new niche with his film Gasland, which explores the controversial practice called hydraulic fracturing, informally known as "fracking." Fracking is the process where rock is broken apart - or fractured - using a highly-pressurized mix of water and chemicals. The machine that conducts this process goes underground and works to strike natural gases and petroleum that will finds its way into a well, where it will be extracted. The process would be so helpful if it wasn't so damn crooked and harmful, Fox states from a deeply-affected point-of-view. He grew up in Milanville, Pennsylvania, near a long Delaware stream, and since Pennsylvania has become a haven for fracking, he fears his safety is at risk since fracking comes with such large, unfathomable consequences.Fox is a one-man army, taking his camera all across the state and filming residents out in the middle of desolate nowhere that have had their water contaminated and their safety sacrificed for the good of large natural gas corporations that are in it for the money and power. Fox speaks to outraged, extremely worried locals who haven't been able to drink, bathe, or adequately use their water because it has an odd-color and a metallic-like taste that began since nearby fracking took place. When the water samples are tested, large amounts of unpronounceable chemicals are found to exist in the water, several of them known cancer-causers that also lurk in the air. The residents are not just helpless but anemic in the face of the big companies. If they choose to stay, what are the long term effects of fracking on their health? And if they leave, the corporations will have less trouble and less guilt about contaminating the land and the area.Boy, would this topic be interesting and thought-provoking if it was more digestible to the common-man. I fear that many will be lost in the complexity of the fracking process and the confusing, often verbose way Fox explains it in Gasland. One of the purposes of a documentary is to inform a viewer, but that is hard to accomplish when the analytical side of the film is much too deep and confusing. Gasland had me by the hand for about forty-five minutes before it plunged so deeply into the processes it takes to frack, how chemical tests were conducted, and how the legislation process was dealing with the issue that I was left drowning in a sea of facts and confusion. How could a detailed film be so unclear and complicated in its presentation? Furthermore, the way Fox conducts the documentary is very questionable. Returning to my mumblecore analogy, his narration during the film is sleepy and dreamlike, fitting for more of a microbudget independent feature than an informative piece of film. When Fox reminisces about the days him and his family gathered in their Milanville home and enjoyed each others company is when the narration feels fitting and welcome, since it accentuates a personal, intimate time in the man's life. To hear him narrate the complex details about the natural gas industry and the processes of natural gas extraction in this dreary, monotonous tone-of-voice is when the film becomes grating and hard to listen to.Regardless, I admire some of the directorial choices Fox chose to do, such as focus heavily on people directly affected by the process rather than talking heads who have an opinion on it. While I question the possibility of reforming the natural gas extraction process greatly to not harm anyone (if there is a way that could even be done), I feel that too often do we hear a great idea and then forget potential consequences. It's so easy for me to sit in my suburban home in Illinois and praise fracking, but what if I was the one in the middle of scenic nowhere, with a wife and a young child - maybe a dog - and I was fearful of the air I breath and the water in my tap due to fracking in my well. Fracking that I thought would boon the economy and assist me in my financial state. I'd be disgusted and, most of all, deplored at the thought the country that promises everyone has a voice allows things like this to go with no regulation or reformation when it is hurting many, many people. It's the act of putting yourself in someone else's shoes and imagining dealing with it yourself.Gasland may make smart choices in terms of what it focuses on, but finally, by the end of the film, I was convinced I've seen a film that exercises in the "statistical documentary" format. It's a format that other documentaries such as Food, Inc and An Inconvenient Truth have taken, which is bat off numerous statistics, place blame on almost everyone else (Gasland, thankfully, puts the blame in the right place), but simultaneously not offer any solutions or even any proposals as to how this problem could potentially be fixed. When watching all three of these documentaries, I felt anemic and out of options. If the films had suggested something I could do to curb this issue, I'd feel that this was a documentary that did its job. Gasland has no problem alerting us about the issue at hand, but it doesn't even propose a solution.Fox has a Gasland: Part II coming soon, which will focus on the long-term effects on fracking and what it could potentially do if it continues to go unregulated. Let's hope one of them is not make us narrate a film in an incessant, sleepy tone.

I have been dedicated to heightening public awareness for critical issues. Here's the newest one: Fracking. Fracking is short meaning of hydraulic fracturing and what it does is fractures in a rock layer caused by the presence of a pressurized fluid pump in to get natural gases. The fluid injected into the rock is typically a slurry of water, proppants, and chemical additives, but can be compressed gases including nitrogen, carbon dioxide or air. Additionally, gels, foams, and compressed gases and other various types can be used. This new way of getting oil, is dangerous to the environment by fears and prove of contamination of public drinking water, air quality, contamination to land by spills and flowback. This is what the film 'GasLand' is mostly about. In the film, there are examples of families having bizarre aberrations like flammable tap water. First-time feature director Josh Fox says it cause by fracking, but other media sources are stating out that methane was in the aquifer before fracking even started in the area. So it's hard to figure out, who is telling the truth. If you like 'Gasland' try also watching FrackNation (2013) for two-sided review. Then watch Gasland Part II (2013). All we know, is that fracking is United States energy independence. International Energy Agency is now calling this 'golden age of gas' and now all the gas n oil companies are searching out permissions from the DOE (Department of Energy). While the main industrial use of hydraulic fracturing is in stimulating production from oil and gas wells, hydraulic fracturing is also applied to many things such as stimulating groundwater wells, preconditioning rock for caving and helping mining. It's also a means to enhancing waste remediation processes, usually hydrocarbon waste. It's a good way to study the measures of the stress in the earth for scientist. It's also used for heat extraction to produce electricity in an enhanced geothermal systems. It's also helps create a lot of new jobs for Americans blue collar work. Now that I told you the goods, let me talk about the bads: there been a lot of the potential mishandling of volatile organic compounds (VOCS) waste such as benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene, and the health effects of these VOCS has cause health effects such as neurological problems, birth defects, and cancer to people. Other health effects cause by VOCS are lung function, increase respiratory illness, and is particularly dangerous to lung development in children in which the movie talks about. One big problem is bacteria, anaerobic iron and sulfate degrading bacteria rapidly proliferate in the fracturing fluids, causing corrosion of the pipes and clogging of the proppants in some example scenes. Inevitably biocides had to be included in the fracturing fluid to inhibit bacterial growth to keep the gas flowing. However, in recent years, there has been a tremendous public concern about the environmental impact associated with hydraulic fracturing and, in particular, the possible contamination of the aquifer and nearby streams by biocides and other chemicals present in the fracturing fluid. This triggered the frantic search for more environmentally benign options to keep anaerobic organisms from proliferating, despite the insistence of the oil industry that the technology is safe. This was the purpose of this film. Fox traveled across the nation and through the gas patches in his old car with nothing but his curiosity and a camera. Throughout the documentary, Fox reached out to scientists, politicians and gas industry executives and ultimately found himself in the halls of Congress to debate about this. Still, Gasland contains a lot of misinformation and misrepresentation about the natural gas industry. I wish the movie try more to explain if fracking has been known to cause earthquakes. Earthquakes induced by human activity cause of which was injection of fluids into deep wells for waste disposal and secondary recovery of oil, and the use of reservoirs for water supplies in documented locations in US, Japan and Canada. I neither relish the idea is that fracking is all bad, cause it's isn't, but it's not environmental safe. The bad outdoes the goods. An alternative technology needs to be developed as soon as possible to solve this environmental concern. Technological advances often times are not at the same pace with the response necessary to negate environmental issues that result from catastrophic failure or unforeseen damage. The case in point is the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We cannot have another BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster. Work on developing coatings containing covalently bound selenium to help stop contaminations. It's need money and time- so oil companies do your part to save the environment, don't take the cheap way out. Still, Gasland is an entertaining, high energy piece of art that will make you laugh and leave you terrified. If this film doesn't make you think about the future and motivate you to action, check your pulse.

I gave this documentary a 5, it really should have had a lot more but sadly the entire documentary was completely ruined by the idiot that held the camera and edited the documentary in such a fashion that made extremely annoying to watch.Almost every shot was ruined by some arty farty attempt to make it look cool by shooting out of focus, colorized, distorted effects. It got to the point that had I not been so interested in the facts of the film, I would have switched it off.It is a fascinating subject that I am sure will come and haunt us in the next few years, especially now that I see Europeans starting to take this dodgy gas extraction method on board. It is extremely frightening to see how the USA has allowed this to go unregulated. Do watch it if you can bare the terrible camera work! A word of advice to those that produced it - Take out your pathetic attempts at trying to be trendy, get rid of your stupid pointless camera effects, just go back and make the video in plain clear footage, it doesn't need to look like an '80's MTV video, it poses some serious questions, make the video watchable!