For Immediate Release: November 25, 2013
Contact: Melissa Troutman, 724-388-0464, Melissa@publicherald.org
Coudersport Theatre, 814-274-8580, coudytheatre@zitomedia.net
The free screening of Triple Divide at Coudersport Theatre has been postponed due to a winter storm watch and rescheduled for Wednesday, December 4th at 7:00 PM. Please consider attending this event with the filmmakers, who will be providing updates regarding their ongoing investigations of fracking in the area, as well as new projects on the horizon. For more information, visit TripleDivideFilm.org.
Local journalist and writer Melissa Troutman brings her documentary film Triple Divide home to the historic Coudersport Theatre in Potter County on Wednesday, December 4th. Troutman is co-director of the film with Joshua Pribanic, a journalist and filmmaker from Sandusky, Ohio.
Splattering the media in most of rural Pennsylvania are promises of economic opportunity from fracking, but Triple Divide details its impacts with eye-opening reports. “The good stuff’s already good. I’m interested in how the negatives are being handled,” said Troutman. The film covers a two-year analysis by investigative news nonprofit Public Herald, co-founded by Troutman and Pribanic during the making of Triple Divide.
Actor Mark Ruffalo co-narrates the film, featuring stunning cinematography and original storytelling, mostly in Potter County, PA.
“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.
The film is named for one of only four Triple Continental Divides in North America, located in Potter County where Troutman grew up.
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 Pennsylvania native 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 began with a show at Edinboro College on November 14th and continue at Buffalo Township Municipal Building in Washington, Pa. at 6:30 PM on November 20th. The filmmakers then traveled to Burke Auditorium at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, PA for Nov. 21st before finishing the Pennsylvania tour Tuesday, Nov. 26th at the historic Coudersport Theatre in Coudersport, Pa. at 7:00 PM. For a complete list of screenings across the U.S., visit TripleDivideFilm.org/
