Gasland is a 2010 American documentary written and directed by Josh Fox. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2011, the film focuses on communities in the United States impacted by natural gas drilling and, specifically, a method of horizontal drilling into shale formations known as slickwater fracking.

We watched this documentary this January somewhere in a pub in Sibiu, as hydraulic fracturing is one of the issues that Romania is also dealing with and it did get me scared and concerned in the same time. Josh Fox travels all around America and talks to people whose back yards have been taken by companies and started to drill for gas.

It’s shocking what is happening and it’s even more shocking that the American authorities don’t take too much action. People cannot use water for drinking as it is polluted with all sorts of chemicals and gas, if you try to light it, it will start a fire. The air they breathe is also polluted, they have migraines, they lose hair, they start to get sick and have all sorts of disease that doctors cannot find the cause for, sometimes not even the cure for.

This is all part of a new country called GASLand.