James F. Gennaro - Sundance Appearances

Sundance Appearances

In January 2010, for the second time in three years, Gennaro appeared in an award-winning environmental documentary premiering at the renowned Sundance Film Festival.

A Special Jury Prize for Documentary was presented to GASLAND, directed by Josh Fox this week.

“GASLAND has a critically important message that people need to hear—that hydraulic fracturing, the gas drilling technology that is sweeping the nation, is completely unregulated by the federal government and poses unacceptable risks to drinking water supplies throughout the country, especially New York City’s drinking water supply from upstate New York,” Gennaro said in a release. “GASLAND puts this national issue into sharp focus and sears it into the public mind. This will lead, I predict, to the reforms and regulations needed to protect us from environmental catastrophe. I just hope we’re not too late.”

Robert Koehler of Variety wrote that “GASLAND will become to the dangers of gas drilling what ‘Silent Spring’ was to DDT.” And Mickey Rapkin of GQ called Josh Fox “Sundance’s new Erin Brockovich.”

GASLAND made its world premiere on Sunday, Jan. 24 at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

The movie, directed by Josh Fox, chronicles the largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history. Aided by an environmentally problematic method of drilling known as “hydraulic fracturing,” vast territories in 34 states could be opened to extensive high-risk drilling. This includes the Marcellus Shale, a vast geological formation that underlies most of Pennsylvania and New York, including the New York City’s unfiltered drinking water supply watershed.

Councilman Gennaro, a national leader in the movement to reform hydraulic fracturing and regulate it by the USEPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, was featured in the film for calling on the State to ban natural gas drilling within New York City’s drinking water supply watershed. He argues that drilling in the City’s water supply could both contaminate drinking water and cost New York City taxpayers billions of dollars in filtration costs.

In the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Councilman Gennaro was featured in FUEL, a documentary about America’s addiction to oil and the need for new and renewable energy solutions.

Councilman Gennaro is highlighted in a segment of the film showing how government is taking action to promote the use of alternative energy, particularly bioheat. Councilman Gennaro is interviewed about legislation he wrote to require all heating oil used in New York City to be "B-20 bioheat" by the year 2013. B-20 bioheat is a mixture consisting of 80 percent standard heating oil and 20 percent biodiesel, which is made from domestic, sustainable, earth-friendly sources like soy or algae.

FUEL has received a large number of accolades and awards, including winning the Best Documentary Audience Award at Sundance.