Cinéma Engagé: Filmmaker Chronicles Texas Fracking Wars
July 31, 2015
Cinéma Engagé: Filmmaker Chronicles Texas Fracking Wars
by Mark Hand
When voters in the city of Denton, Texas, approved a ban on the use of hydraulic fracturing last November, documentary filmmaker Garrett Graham believed he had found the perfect ending to his film about the organized actions taken by a suburban community to stop natural gas drilling.
For months, Graham, a Denton resident, had used his camera to chronicle the meticulous efforts of a group of residents to make their city a haven from the oil and gas drilling practice commonly called fracking. They had jumped through what they believed were all the necessary legal hoops, and after all the votes were tallied, residents erupted with joy upon learning a referendum to ban fracking in Denton had passed.
“They did everything they were supposed to do. They followed the rules,” Graham said in an interview. “They went through all the proper procedures.”
But after their celebrations on the night of Nov. 4, 2014, Denton residents woke up to the reality of Texas politics: the oil and gas industry had filed lawsuits against the measure and state lawmakers promptly announced they would overturn the democratically passed ban in Denton and ensure no other jurisdiction would pursue similar restrictions.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/31/cinema-engage-filmmaker-chronicles-texas-fracking-wars/
