Things have gone a little quiet on the fracking front since the Government last year managed to kick the controversy down the line, awaiting "further research".
With no decision on the controversial gas extraction method expected until 2014, fracking friends and foes can sate their curiosity with a new US documentary film made by an Irish couple. Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney are behind FrackNation, which they promise tells "the truth" about fracking. It is not, however, a truth that will appeal to anti-fracking activists, of whom there are many in Irish Border counties.
The film premiered this month and gets its US TV debut on January 22nd on axs.tv. It features McAleer travelling across the US, meeting fracking advocates and opponents, with a focus on the impact of fracking at community level. He also films in Poland, meeting people whose lives, it is claimed, would improve dramatically if they had access to lower energy costs.
McAleer and McElhinney, from Tyrone and Donegal respectively, produced the 2009 documentary Not Evil Just Wrong, which challenged Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. They funded for their latest offering via crowdsourcing website, Kickstarter, simultaneously building a profile on Facebook and Twitter.
Some 3,305 people donated on Kickstarter, generating $212,265 for the film. "This is a documentary funded by the people for the people," says McAleer. If those people are based on this side of the Atlantic, they will be able to buy a DVD of FrackNation in the spring.
