Another fracking movie, this one called "Gas Odyssey," makes its worldwide debut this week in Binghamton. (See our calendar listing for details.)
From the trailer, which is sadly impossible to embed, it looks like the film explores why the people of Dimock, Pennsylvania, have chosen to embrace gas drilling. A few quotes from the townspeople who are interviewed:
"We have an opportunity here to put money in everybody's pocket," says the owner of a pizza parlor.
"If there was something else we could do, I'm all for it. I don't see anything else in the future, in the near future, that's going to save these communities," says an unidentified man.
"For the first time in 25 years I'm actually making money, and I think that's kind of nice," says another businessowner.
Dimock is ground zero in the fracking debate. Last fall, ProPublica reported that the town was the scene of fracking spills and leaks that caused explosions, fish kills, and wells to catch on fire. In November, 15 Dimock families sued Cabot Oil and Gas for health and contamination problems related to the drilling.
Last week, WBNG in Binghamton interviewed the filmmaker, Aaron Price, who says that he wanted to interview industry officials for the movie, but never could:
"Every time we tried to interview people from the gas companies they haven't agreed to be on camera so we basically just focused on the ordinary people alone," Price said.
And in February, the Star-Gazette in Elmira talked to Price and his mother about their plans for the film, which they're been working on for years:
Carolyn and Aaron Price are producing the film, which looks at the economic and environmental stakes of producing the nation’s largest natural gas field, extending under the Southern Tier of New York through Appalachia. The film, yet to be titled, has been over two years in the making, Carolyn Price said
