Unearthed: The Fracking Facade

Unearthed: The Fracking Facade

by Jolynn Minnaar

Independent feature documentary investigating shale gas extraction from a global perspective to understand what fracking could mean to South Africa.

Karoo, South Africa.

As this sparsely populated region considers introducing shale gas drilling, filmmaker Jolynn Minnaar at first keeps an open mind. After all, the community is impoverished, with very high unemployment and bleak prospects, and could do with a booming industry. Armed with nothing more than her inquisitive nature and a camera, she soon finds herself travelling to America, to the frontline of the fracking industry. What she discovers is a bleak landscape, where powerful energy companies have exploited the land, at a terrible cost to both the environment and the health of the local communities. It's a world where ill families are either desperate to talk, or bound by nondisclosure agreements that allow the companies to control a dangerous mythology. Minaar's journey into America's heart of darkness is an absorbing primer on the fracking industry – and a necessary wake-up call to the rest of the world.