Documentary Tours Pennsylvania, Uncovers Fracking Secrets

Sold out screening at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania of the fracking documentary Triple Divide w/ over 300 people in attendance. © jbpribanic

Files from Public Herald’s documentary Triple Divide which focusses on evidence to tell the story about fracking in Pennsylvania. photo: jbpribanic

Splattering the media in most of rural Pennsylvania are promises of economic opportunity from fracking, but Triple Divide a new documentary by filmmakers and journalists Joshua Pribanic and Melissa Troutman details its impacts with eye-opening reports. The film covers a two-year analysis by investigative news nonprofit Public Herald and is currently touring across the Commonwealth this November.

Triple Divide co-director Joshua Pribanic. photo: Melissa Troutman

“People can expect to witness a side of fracking they’ve never seen before by watching Triple Divide,” said Pribanic. The film is the first of its kind to show illegal burial of potentially radioactive waste in Exceptional Value Watersheds. It highlights new concepts regarding an issue dubbed “The Pressure Bulb” referring to the unregulated force needed to frack a well, and uncovers a ‘predrill scandal’ where the industry is allowed to dismiss its own science.

Hard-hitting, Triple Divide is also fair. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), in charge of fracking in the state, is highlighted in the film for weakly enforced regulations. Yet DEP Deputy Secretary Scott Perry told Troutman he’s seen the film and it’s very well done. “This attests to Public Herald’s journalistic integrity and ability to reach both ends of the public spectrum: community members and heads of state,” said Troutman.

Triple Divide co-narrators Melissa Troutman and Mark Ruffalo. photo: jbpribanic

 Triple Divide is co-narrated by actor Mark Ruffalo and was filmed with stunning cinematography and original storytelling, mostly in Potter County, PA.

Judy E. experienced changes in her water quality after drilling and fracking on a neighbor’s property in Potter County, Pa. Her story is detailed in the documentary film, Triple Divide.

The film is named for one of only four Triple Continental Divides in North America, located in Potter County where Troutman grew up, a place that provides drinking water to millions of Americans and feeds rivers that reach three separate sides of the continent. It signals to the audience that everything, and everyone, is downstream from shale gas extraction.

Jed Thorp of the Ohio Sierra Club said, “It’s hard to imagine anyone having a fully-informed opinion about fracking without seeing Triple Divide.” And Robert Donnan, self-described shale gas researcher, says Triple Divide is the “best movie on fracking to date [with] facts not fiction or spin.”

Screenings begin with a show at Edinboro College’s Pogue Student Center Multipurpose Room on November 14th at 8:30 PM and then plays at Buffalo Township Municipal Building in Washington, Pa. at 6:30 PM on November 20th. The filmmakers then travel to Burke Auditorium at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, PA at 7:30 PM before finishing the Pennsylvania tour at the historic Coudersport Theater in Coudersport, Pa. at 7:00 PM. For a complete list of screenings across the U.S., visit TripleDivideFilm.org/screenings.

Watch the trailer for Triple Divide online at Tripledividefilm.org or see photos from the film on Public Herald’s Flickr page. Admission is free to the public at most all screenings with a suggested donation at the door. DVDs will be available after Q&A with the filmmakers. For more information email Melissa@publicherald.org.

Public Herald co-founders Melissa Troutman (middle) and Joshua Pribanic (right) donate merchandise and signed copies of their debut documentary Triple Divide to the Coudersport Public Library director Keturah Cappadonia (left) to help raise funds at the library’s annual auction Tuesday, November 12. Additional signed copies of Triple Divide were donated for public use and can be rented at the circulation desk. On Tuesday November 26 at 7:00pm, Troutman and Pribanic will return to the Coudersport Theatre for an encore free public screening of Triple Divide.