| For Immediate Release
March 1, 2005 POWDER RIVER COUNTRY, a new High Plains Film by first-time director, Marianne Zugel, documents coal bed methane development in Montana and Wyoming Advance DVDs are available. Contact High Plains Films for details: v. (406) 728-0753, e. yak@highplainsfilms.org More Information and a short trailer from the movie available on-line at : Contact - ********************************* "Driven by soaring prices, empowered by federal mining law and cheered on by the Bush administration, energy companies have been unstoppable in recent years as they march through the Rocky Mountain West searching for natural gas." A new documentary from High Plains Films that looks at coalbed methane development and its impacts in Wyoming and Montana is now available for exhibition and broadcast. High Plains Films is seeking distribution in all markets. POWDER RIVER COUNTRY tells the story of concerned citizens playing catch-up to an industry on the development fast track and their efforts to protect the integrity of the Powder River Basin landscape. The 34 minute film documents the current situation and contentious issues surrounding the development of the newly discovered coal bed methane (CBM) from ground zero of the globally-reaching boom. In a setting whose history is tightly intertwined with energy development, the rush for CBM and the havoc created in its wake is polarizing communities throughout the American West. The New York Times sums up the current situation, "The methane play, as the industry likes to call it, is being sold on the grounds of energy security, as a way of ensuring that the American lifestyle can continue uninterrupted and undiminished. But what that means is turning everything upside down. All that drilling and scarring, all that animosity and moral erosion lead to one year's supply of natural gas and the waste of billions of gallons of water." POWDER RIVER COUNTRY offers the opportunity to view CBM development first-hand through the eyes of landowners, whose families have worked the on the land and with traditional energy development for generations. Industry, local government officials, regulators, and scientists engage in the discourse, which is shaping future development worldwide. Aerial and up-close, on-the-ground images of development, partnered with the subtle beauty of the rugged terrain and riverside pastoral scenes, invoke a sense of the pervasiveness of this development and how it is changing vast areas of the Western high plains. Contact:
|