Documents the shocking effect of oil and natural gas drilling on the environment and families in the Rocky Mountain West

Emmy-award winning documentary on the oil and natural gas drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West and the Northeast (32 states are targeted).
Imagine discovering that you don't own the mineral rights under your land, and that an energy company plans to drill for natural gas two hundred feet from your front door. Imagine another shocking truth: you have little or no recourse to protect your home or land from such development. SPLIT ESTATE maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities and their health.

Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left this idyllic landscape and its rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. One resident demonstrates the degree of benzene contamination in a mountain stream by setting it alight with a match. Many others, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children.

SPLIT ESTATE zeroes in on Garfield County, Colorado, and the San Juan Basin, but the industry is aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states. They are even making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions.

As our appetite for fossil fuels increases despite mounting public health concerns, SPLIT ESTATE cracks the sugarcoating on an industry that assures us it is a good neighbor, and drives home the need for alternatives -- both here and abroad.

Media

Watch trailer »

Bonus Materials

• 15-minute version
• Extended interview on the Health Effects of oil and gas drilling with Dr. Theo Colborn, PhD, Daniel Thau Teitelbaum, MD and Dr. Kendall Gurdes, MD [12:03]
• Extended interview with Legal Action with Oil and Gas Plaintiff Attorney Lance Astrella [10:14]
• Short film on Community Action for Activists [4:42]
• SDH Captions for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Scene selection

Cast & Crew

Director: Debra Anderson

Producer: Red Rock Pictures

Producer: LLC

Additional Details

Label: Bullfrog Films

Genre: Documentary

Run Time: 76 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 06/21/11

UPC: 761326897025