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Gas industry attempted to block 'Gasland' from Oscars
Pro-drilling group contested the film's eligibility in a letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Sat, Feb 26 2011 at 8:54 PM
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Gasland
You know a documentary is hitting home when the very industry its targeting starts to appear desperate.
Details came to light early this week that Lee Fuller, executive director of pro-drilling group Energy in Depth, wrote the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asking for them to reconsider the film's eligibility.
Fuller described the doc as an "expression of stylized fiction" with "errors, inconsistencies and outright falsehoods." He asked the Academy to immediately take "remedial action" against the film.
Their response? It's up to members to decide for themselves the accuracy of the picture.
"We do not have the resources to vet each claim or implication in the many (documentary) films that compete for our awards each year, and even if we did there would be no shortage of people disputing our conclusions," wrote the Academy's executive director Bruce Davis.
He added, "If facts have been suppressed or distorted, if truth has been twisted, we depend on (our members) to sniff that out and vote accordingly."
According to director Josh Fox, such attacks like this only help to promote the message contained in the film. "I think it works against them," he told The Canadian Press. "But I think it shows how aggressive they are, how bullying they are, and how willing they are to lie to promote the falsehood that it's OK to live in a gas drilling area."
Whether "Gasland" wins tomorrow night or not, expect the issue to be front and center thanks to actors supporting the film. Mark Ruffalo, and potentially some other nominees, will be wearing a blue water droplet pin as a way of bringing attention to natural gas hydro-fracking.
The pin is an initiative of WaterDefense, a campaign to protect our drinking water from extreme methods used to extract fossil fuels.
“Water is our most treasured resource. It’s the most basic element of life and not having access to clean and safe water changes everything,” said Ruffalo in a statement.
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These days we would have to check your/their background and see who's had who's hand in who's pockets.
Having spent the last 10 years in the Industry as well as being very environmentally conscience, watching this movie made me laugh hysterically. The complete lack of science involved in the making of this documentary is easily on par with a Fox News story. Believe what you want, but five minutes of actual research into fracturing would be enough to understand that the claims being made in this movie are not only scientifically impossible, but socially irresponsible.
Seriously, the whole point was to mock the artificially superficial culture of the rhetorical schism of the proliferation of the anarchy.
You're serious with this? Really? What information is there to gain from you "oil jerks" exactly? None, because if that information were to get out, you probably wouldn't have a job.
If I walk into a coffee shop in the city and ask them if they have the best coffee around what will they tell me? If I ask you whether oil-drilling is safe for the environment what are you going to tell me? It's an absolutely outrageous idea to trust in the advice of someone who stands to profit from said advice.
Anonymous - Sun, Feb 27 2011 at 10:45 You hit that nail on the head!!! Well put>
I thought it was very open in the facts and how it portrayed them. Some of the "falsehoods" were hard to deny when you see the fire spitting out of outside wells, not just 1 either. The Bad News is the oil industry is getting ready to start Hydraulic Fracking, so enough people are still looking the "other" way.
I am surprised it didnt work, guess they couldnt come up with enough payoff cash! Too bad a politician isnt in charge lol.
www.complete-privacy.eu.tc
It's not the answer that questions the unknown. It is the question that answers the known.
pcow
The voting for the Oscars is in question this year after the judges were captured on video taking bribes from movie executives: http://fms.nu/hbfylB
I mean this just put everything in the last 5-10 years in question now.
0/10. bitter about missing out on all the rickrolling?