Haynesville Invited to Aspen Ideas Festival!

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

Contact: Chris Lyon, 318-213-6437, info@HaynesvilleMovie.com
EPK and graphic elements can be found at www.haynesvillemovie.com/downloads

Internationally Acclaimed Energy Documentary

to Receive Special Presentation

at the Aspen Ideas Festival

The new version of “Haynesville: A Nation’s Hunt for an Energy Future,” the highly acclaimed energy documentary, will be featured at the prestigious Aspen Ideas Festival (presented by The Aspen Institute and Atlantic Monthly) at a special screening event on Tuesday, June 28th at 7pm. The event will be open to the public and will include an all-star pre-screening panel discussion as well as a post-screening Q&A with the film’s director, Gregory Kallenberg.

“Along with being invited to speak at TEDx and premiering at SXSW, The Aspen Ideas Festival is among the highest honors the film has received. This festival is the place where the world’s great minds meet to discuss our greatest issues,” says Kallenberg, the film’s director. “I look at this as once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to present our film and its message of a sustainable and affordable clean energy future to this amazing group of thinkers.”

The updated and expanded “Haynesville” follows the historic discovery of the massive Haynesville Shale natural gas field found in northwest Louisiana and follows its impact on local people’s lives. The find is projected to hold 180 trillion cubic feet of gas or, in economic terms $1.75 trillion dollars worth of energy. The new version further addresses drilling issues and explores the impact the new shale gas discoveries could have on the United States’ energy future.

“The film provides a unique view into what it’s like to live through an energy boom and, in turn, what these resources could mean for our nation’s energy future,” said Mr. Kallenberg.

The Aspen Ideas Fest is a world-renowned event. The festival is known for hosting some of the most “inspired and provocative thinkers” from a wide range of fields of study to engage in stimulating discussions regarding the world’s most important topics. Past speakers include Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan, environmentalist Bill McKibben, and this year will include NPR’s Michele Norris, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and others.

“Energy and its sources are something we all take for granted. Energy is something we don’t really think about because it’s always there for us,” said Kallenberg. “Hopefully, ‘Haynesville’ helps give some perspective on where our energy comes from, the impact it has on people’s lives and, ultimately the potential benefit this energy could potentially have for the United States.”

“Haynesville” has been lauded as a balanced and highly personal look at how energy affects our country and has been called “Moving“, “A revelation!” and “A humane take on an increasingly relevant—and complicated—subject.”

SCREENING INFORMATION
“Haynesville: A Nation’s Hunt for an Energy Future” will screen at the Doerr Hosier Center – Aspen Meadows Resort Tuesday, June 28, 2011 as a part of The Path to the Clean Energy Future Evening Exchange at 7:00pm. Doors open for the screening at 7:30 and a post-screening Q&A with director Gregory Kallenberg will take place immediately following the film.

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HAYNESVILLE bought by NBC/Universal and will play on CNBC – Official Release

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

Contact: Gregory Kallenberg, 512-751-9000, Gregory@HaynesvilleMovie.com

“HAYNESVILLE: A Nation’s Hunt for an Energy Future” will Premiere

On CNBC Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Internationally successful energy film will receive a special evening on CNBC dedicated to the film.

Additional showtimes scheduled on subsequent evenings.

After a successful international tour of the documentary “Haynesville: A Nation’s Hunt for an Energy Future” including sold-out screenings in New York, Austin, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Boston, Atlanta and Europe the film was purchased by NBC/Universal and will air on its CNBC network. “Haynesville”’s  world television premiere will be on Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 9PM EST and will be followed by encore presentations at 10pm, 12am and 1am. In addition, the film will run Sunday, November 28th at 10pm.

“’Haynesville’ gives people a unique view into what it’s like to live during an energy and, in turn, what that energy boom could mean to our nation’s clean energy future,” said Gregory Kallenberg, the film’s director, “Now we are extremely excited to be working with CNBC to present the film and to present our story and our take on a pathway to a clean energy future to a nationwide audience.”

The 1-hour program, which features a special network cut to focus on the personal stories of the full length feature documentary, chronicles the historic discovery of the massive Haynesville Shale natural gas field, and follows its impact on local people’s lives. Specifically, the CNBC special features Louisiana Outdoorsman Mike Smith and community activist Kassi Fitzgerald are seen in the film dealing with the struggles of being caught in the middle the Haynesville boom. In the broader perspective, “Haynesville” invites the viewer to consider the potential impact this find’s natural gas supply will have on the nation’s energy future. The Haynesville Shale is projected to hold 180 trillion cubic feet of gas or, in economic terms $1.75 trillion dollars worth of energy.

“The discovery of shale gas in broad terms isn’t new. What’s new is the unique location and density of this fuel source,” added the film’s producer Mark Bullard, “What we have here is a highly domestic and attainable energy supply that could impact the way America looks at energy- and it’s in these people’s back yards.”

“Haynesville” has been lauded as a highly personal look at how energy affects our country and has been called “Moving“ and “A humane take on an increasingly relevant—and complicated—subject.”

“Energy is and its sources is something we all take for granted,” said Kallenberg. “Hopefully, ‘Haynesville’ helps give some perspective on where our energy comes from, the impact it has people’s lives and the potential benefit this energy could potentially have for the United States.”

We hope our film helps bring some perspective to the issue of landowner rights and, in its small way, starts a discussion to help create an energy solution for the United States.”

NETWORK PREMIERE INFO

“Haynesville: A Nation’s Hunt for an Energy Future” Network Cut debuts Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 9PM EST followed by encore presentations at 10pm, 12am and 1am. In addition, the film will run Sunday, November 28th at 10pm. The feature-length edition of the film which features more personal stories and a discussion about natural gas and the American energy picture is available for order online at www.HaynesvilleMovie.com or the downloadable version is available exclusively on iTunes.

More information about the film and the “Haynesville” trailer can be found at: www.HaynesvilleMovie.com

-END-

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“Haynesville” Accepted at the Acadiana Film Festival

We wanted to write to let you know that we have been accepted to the 2010 Acadiana Film Festival in Lafayette, Louisiana! If you are in the area or attending the festival, please stop by and see “Haynesville” on Saturday, November, 13th, 1:45 pm at the Cite Des Arts – 109 Vine Street.

For more information, visit www.acadianafilm.org

Acadiana Film Festival Commercial from Allison Bohl on Vimeo.

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A Tweet From Our Fort Worth Screening

A tweet from Fort Worth Star Telegram writer Bud Kennedy:

“Battle of the gas movies: The emotional @GasLandMovie is on HBO Monday, but Louisiana-based @HaynesvilleFilm is fairer and smarter. See both.”

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Copenhagen was great, so what’s next?

Many of you have been nice enough to inquire about Copenhagen and our screening of “Haynesville.”  The discussions seem be the same, often meandering from curiosity about the screening directly to questions about the conference and its results.  This usually leads to people letting me know how disappointed they were in the results reached in Copenhagen.  And that’s where I put the brakes on the conversation.

I find myself explaining again and again that I never had the expectation that the global community could agree on carbon limits.  Call me a cynic, but the international community can’t even agree on a standard distance for a 3-point shot in basketball.  What makes you think they can get it together on something this big?

With that in mind, while chewing on a danish (Danish, I might add), I started looking for (and found) something different in this global event.  I saw Copenhagen as serving a larger purpose than what was reported in the papers or discussed on cable television.  Copenhagen served as a launching point for a new energy and environmental movement.  More importantly, the summit/conference served as a place where these two disparate groups came together and pledged to work towards a common goal.  Believe it or not, this is a big deal.  The combination of the energy industry and the environmental advocacy movement working together will add up to some powerful results.

Think about it:  We all consume energy.  We all can agree that we’d like that energy to be as clean as possible.  These two simple statements (which, anecdotally, I actually heard the two groups agree on) will lead us to a cleaner and greener energy future.

As I watched and listened to the audience’s enthusiastic reaction to “Haynesville” at the Climate Summit, I noticed that the this summit could be much more than heads of state squabbling over eggshell-like agreements.  Hardcore energy advocates and hardcore environmental advocates were nodding at the screen and agreeing with the film’s message.  To me, this meant that, finally, they realized that they were sitting on the same side of the table.  And this realization was that essential first step towards coming up with a real solution for our energy future.  And this first step was the true accomplishment of the summit in Copenhagen.

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Haynesville in Hopenhagen

by Chris Lyon, editor of Haynesville

Attention citizens of the world! Last week, representatives (official and symbolic) descended on Copenhagen, Denmark with one unified goal- to change the course of the global environmental decline. Now we are half-way through one of the biggest environmental rallies ever achieved, and those of us who cannot be there are holding our breath. Will the leaders of the world make a definitive motion towards environmental responsibility on the planet Earth? I certainly hope for not only slowing the decline, but reversing the trend altogether. Bill McKibben had it right when he told us “It can’t happen soon enough” and “We had to stop this train yesterday” when we interviewed him all those months ago for Haynesville. His interview- among others- really allowed us as filmmakers to get a handle on how bad things really are and how fixing rising emissions is not simply a problem in the United States, but in other developing countries as well- e.g. China and India- where as many as two new coal plants are opened a week to meet the growing energy demands.

It’s a common saying that seems to never change- “Now is the time” they say- or “Now more than ever” and I’m here to tell you that this is that time. A few more years of this unchecked, unfiltered growth and we will be toast. I want to take a detour from COP15 for a moment and reiterate why coal is such a bad energy source. First, it’s acquisition requires an invasive, destructive  process of mining or mountaintop removal which destroys landscapes- literally wiping entire sections of mountain ranges off the face of the Earth and making that land inhospitable to vegetation. Second, it’s dirty- which means heavy metals like mercury, radioactive elements, carbon dioxide, etc. Many times these elements are “scrubbed out” to make them more “clean-” but it’s far from a perfect process. And as we dig deeper and deeper to less efficient forms of coal to fire our plants, the dirtier and dirtier the coal becomes. Third, when burned, coal has the single highest emissions rate of any fuel known to man. Coal factories are painfully inefficient, and difficult to start up and shut down with demand- which means they’re always on.

I lingered on coal so long because it is the world’s biggest environmental violator- and it is used in every country from the third world to the first-level superpowers. Other fuel sources must be discussed as well. Oil is being used for transportation when it has so many more uses- from computer chips to medical equipment- that it seems a little silly to be using oil to drive to the grocery store. The same song can be sung for biofuels like corn ethanol- using food for fuel- seriously? When so many starve on a daily basis from lack of simple nourishment?

I digress. Entire books and volumes have been dedicated to such arguments. The whole thing comes back to getting us on the right track. There is one available for us to set our sights on- it includes wind and solar as the ultimate in green technology. And who knows- perhaps a new technology that hasn’t been discovered yet. But this must happen today. Today. Today. Today. Because even if we start TODAY (I really mean it) it will take a minimum of 30 years to get us where we need to be by shutting down coal plants; replacing them with wind and solar; creating new, utility-scale storage solutions; and changing our existing vehicle fleets to a new energy source- perhaps simply electricity created by the cleanest sources of the future.

The ultimate story of Haynesville is how this huge discovery in Northwest Louisiana, USA effects the people on a micro and macro scale. On the macro scale, the natural gas there and around the world could provide a greener alternative to coal and oil as we transition to the new wave of energy devices for the future.

There is hope in Copenhagen- it’s a global recognition of the problem. Even if you aren’t present to scream at the top of your lungs in Denmark, your voice is needed here as well. Write you representatives, write the president or leader of your country.

This is important. Do your part. Save your grandchildren’s children’s children.

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