When filmmakers become their stories

Some documentary films advocate unapologetically for change. Gasland, for example, which screened last weekend at Mountainfilm.

Josh Fox’s personal journey of discovery through the natural-gas fields of Pennsylvania (his home state) and west to the Rocky Mountains is a forthright indictment of an industry largely unregulated, and stubbornly secretive, when it comes to the air and water pollution it creates. (In one harrowing scene, a Colorado man instructs his wife to dial “91”—and then keep her finger hovering over the final “1”—while he takes a lighter and ignites the stream of water from their kitchen faucet.) Fox’s film is designed to stir outrage and action.

Bag It is another one.