Name Josh Fox Known for Gasland Education Columbia University | Nationality American Role Film director | |
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Born 1972 Milanville, Pennsylvania Occupation Documentary filmmaker, environmental activist Awards Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing - Nonfiction Programming Movies Gasland, Gasland Part II, Memorial Day, Occupy Sandy Similar People Trish Adlesic, Molly Gandour, Dick Cheney, Dhruva Aliman, Pete Seeger | ||
Josh Fox Discusses HBO Documentary `Gasland': Video
Josh Fox (born 1972) is an American film director, playwright and environmental activist, best known for his Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary, Gasland. He followed that up with the HBO production of Gasland Part II, which premiered on July 8, 2013 and was released on DVD on January 14, 2014. He is one of the most prominent public opponents of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. In 2017 he was awarded his third Environmental Media Association award for Best Documentary for his latest film How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016, toured the world theatrically and was released on HBO in June. He also is the founder and artistic director of a film and theater company in New York City called the International WOW Company.
Contents
- Josh Fox Discusses HBO Documentary Gasland Video
- gasland director josh fox arrested at congressional hearing on natural gas fracking
- Personal life
- Career
- Activism
- Filmography
- Filmmaking
- Activism and Theatre Work
- Street naming
- Accusation
- References
Throughout 2016, Fox traveled around the US, working extensively as a surrogate for Senator Bernie Sanders and was appointed a member of the campaign’s NY Platform Committee. Working alongside Bill McKibben, Nina Turner, Ben Jealous, Susan Sarandon, Jane Kleeb and Dr. Cornel West to pass an historic climate amendment to the Democratic Platform which addressed carbon pricing, the phasing out of natural gas power plants, community involvement and adopting the Keystone XL climate standard for all federal energy projects. Fox maintains close relations with Senator Sanders as the Creative Director for Our Revolution, an organization which Sanders started at the conclusion of the 2016 Democratic primaries.
Fox is a contributing journalist most recently seen in Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast and online with NowThis. His reporting from Standing Rock has been seen by over 40 million people online.
gasland director josh fox arrested at congressional hearing on natural gas fracking
Personal life
Josh was born in 1972 and lived in Milanville, Pennsylvania. He attended Columbia University and graduated in 1995, majoring in Theater and studying with Anne Bogart and Edward Tayler. In 2008, Josh campaigned for Barack Obama’s presidential run and soon after, Josh’s family was offered $100,000 in order to allow a natural gas fracking company to use his land in northern Pennsylvania. Curious of the situation, Josh set out to learn more about the fracking industry. After learning the truth behind some of the natural gas company's false positive claims, Josh went on a mission to uncover them further, crossing the country visiting other fracking areas and seeing their drinking water conditions, birthing Josh’s anti-fracking activism.
Career
In 2008, Josh Fox directed his first narrative feature film Memorial Day. The film covers the issues of American party culture, the Iraq war and torture as it travels from Ocean City, Maryland to Abu Ghraib. In 2010, Josh wrote, directed, and produced Gasland, and released it at the Sundance Film Festival. The film had critical success and was nominated for multiple awards. He later produced a successor to Gasland which was HBO special Gasland Part II, which aired July 2013 and was released on DVD in January 2014. In addition to his work as a film director, Fox has written and directed over 30 plays with his ensemble the International WOW Company. He has premiered plays in eight countries with a network of over 100 diverse actors, dancers, musicians, technical artists, and visual artists.
On October 1, 2015 Josh Fox's mini-documentary GasWork debuted on All In with Chris Hayes, which detailed the deadly unsafe working conditions in the hydraulic fracturing oil and gas drilling industry. [1]
In 2016, Josh Fox directed How to Let Go of The World and Love All Things Climate Can't Change. The film is a personal take on climate change traveling to 12 countries on 6 continents, and features many notable figures on climate change such as Bill McKibben, Michael Mann, Van Jones, the Pacific Climate Warriors, Elizabeth Kolbert and many others.
Josh has written/directed/produced five feature films, six short films and over twenty-five full-length works for the stage for the International WOW Company, a film and theater company that he founded in 1996 that has performed across the US, Europe and Asia. They premiered in New York, Asia and around Europe. For his theatre work, Josh has received five grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, five MAP Fund Grants, a Drama Desk Nomination, and an Otto Award, among others.
Activism
Josh Fox is well known for his opposition of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. When he isn’t directing or producing, he spends time campaigning on behalf of the anti-fracking movement. Fox has toured over 300 cities with his films campaigning for a ban on fracking and against the gas industry’s exploitation of loopholes in the Clean Water act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
In February 2012 he was arrested during a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on hydraulic fracturing when he attempted to videotape the proceedings.
The Solutions Project is an organization formed by engineering professor Mark Z. Jacobson (Stanford University), Josh Fox and actor/activist Mark Ruffalo, with the aim of moving The United States towards 100% renewable energy, including the use of wind power and solar power. The organization says this energy transition is mainly social and political in nature, not technical.
Filmography
Filmmaking
For his filmmaking, Josh Fox’s film GASLAND premiered at the Sundance film festival 2010, where it was awarded the 2010 Special Jury Prize for Documentary. In June of 2010 it premiered on HBO to an audience of 3 million homes, was seen by over 250,000 audience members in its 250 city grassroots tour. The film was nominated for the 2011 Academy Award for best documentary, and won a 2011 Emmy for best non-fiction director. It was also nominated for Best Documentary Screenplay by the WGA and was awarded the Environmental Media Association Award for Best Documentary. For many, this film was their introduction to the extreme energy extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” Legendary actor Jane Fonda once remarked that GASLAND, “woke me up” to the impacts of fracking and the climate crisis overall.
GASLAND Part II premiered on HBO July 8th, 2013 won the 2013 Environmental Media Association award for Best Documentary, the Best Film at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival and was given the Hell Yeah Prize from Cinema Eye honors.
HOW TO LET GO AND LOVE ALL THE THINGS CLIMATE CAN'T CHANGE was selected to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016, and it won the Environmental Advocacy award at the Environmental Film Festival. In addition, it also received the Telluride MountainFilm Festival 2016 Student Award.
Activism and Theatre Work
Josh fox was awarded the 2010 Lennon Ono Grant for Peace by Yoko Ono. For his theatre work, Josh has received five grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, five MAP Fund Grants, a Drama Desk Nomination, and an Otto Award, among others.
Street naming
Josh Fox now has a street named after him in France. Inaugurated the 29 May 2014 in Aujac, in the south of France. A region where the French anti-shale-gas movement was born.
Accusation
In the opening to Gasland, Fox refers to the 19.5 acres in Milanville, PA as “my land”. Supporters of fracking in the area of Pennsylvania where Fox lived questioned whether he was really a local of the area. They claimed that he and his family were New Yorkers and used the property as a weekend retreat. The Wayne County Bureau of Elections stated that Fox registered to vote in Milanville in December 2002. In discussions and e-mail conversations, Fox proclaimed that he grew up in both areas. Fox made it clear that "Milanville is the only consistent home I've had my whole life" and he called the property "the centering point of my life." Fox does not feel he tried to hide his New York roots, because during most of the filming of Gasland he wore his New York Yankees cap.