RAFTT anti-fracking spoof product Frackalicious was on display in multiple venues at the Wild and Scenic Film Fest in Nevada City last weekend (Thank you Ruthie for the original inspiration,) and our shadow play “What the Frack?!” debuted in the open-air gathering on Commercial Street. And kids were painting away on the children’s “Stop Climate Change” banner. What a weekend!
The annual SYRCL (South Yuba River Citizens’ League) Wild and Scenic Film Festival is a weekend of film viewings, visual art, street performance (with pedal-powered stage), workshops and activist networking. SYRCL went out on a limb and invited RAFTT to showcase Frackalicious in the allotted SYRCL space in the Chamber of Commerce window beginning a few days before the Fest opened.
Going in, I suspected this might prove to be controversial, and so it was. 
Frackalicious installation complete, there followed a flurry of phone calls from the Chamber to the SYRCL office. As it was explained to me by my SYRCL liason, the Chamber didn’t want anything political in their window. Besides, apparently I was supposed to have included Film Fest Posters and merch. I never got that memo.
SYRCL needs to keep a harmonious relationship with the Chamber, so we didn’t make a stink. And that’s the story of the one day during which the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce window was devoted to marketing the water of the future… water with flair… Frackalicious! The next day I quietly switched out the banner and set up a non-threatening “fun at the film fest” display, in line with the Chamber’s preferences. I did leave a few bottles of Frackalicious nestled in among the SYRCL merch in the finished arrangement.
Also at SYRCL’s request, Frackalicious bottles and signage were elegantly arrayed near the wine table at the SYRCL opening night party, and we posted a Frackalicious booth on Commercial St. It’s the official sponsor for our shadow puppet show “What the Frack?!”
Thank you SYRCL, for boldly supporting Frackalicious in so many ways. Shadow puppets!
We worked for a month on the show. Over 20 activists collaborated to write an original script, act and play music on the soundtrack, cut dozens of puppets and set pieces, and hone the timing and puppet action to result in a fabulous 25 minutes of anti-fracking entertainment. Once materials are assembled, I’ll be posting the full shadow-play kit: script, soundtrack, video and even some puppet templates, so the momentum from this project can continue to live and grow. We’d love to see the show produced in lots of other places! 
Summary: “What the Frack?!” is an original script based on the Bremen Town Musicians, a classic fairy tale by the Brother’s Grimm. In the old story, farm animals fleeing abuse and slaughter meet on the road and journey together in search of a new life playing music together. They come upon a house full of robbers, scare them off with their animal characteristics, which in the dark seem monstrous to the robbers, and then live happily together in the house, creating what we could imagine to be a sort of music and art collective.
You may have seen the iconic image of the animals standing on each other’s backs, one on top of the other in a tower, and looking in at the robber’s window. We have adapted the story to include both wild and domesticated animals (frog, fox, goat and elk) fleeing a contaminated fracking site. They come upon Robbers (energy industry execs, “unregulators”, bankers and lawyers) feasting in an opulent bank lobby. By listening at the window, the animals learn the reason that their homes have been poisoned and bulldozed. In grief, they cry out, and all of nature cries out too, lamenting with words and music the destruction of our planet in the name of greed.
As in the original tale, our “Robbers” return to the scene, but in our adaptation a dialogue begins and a clean up effort is launched. However, it’s important to realize that fracking permanently contaminates water sources and the only way to mitigate the effects of fracking is not to frack at all. Regulations are just a scam, ban fracking. 
What is fracking? Fracking is currently being practiced in California, and the industry is expanding (unless we stop it!) The fracking operations closest to Nevada City are in the Sutter Buttes. Fracking is a means to gain access to gas, and sometimes oil, trapped in rock formations deep underground. Huge amounts of water, infused with highly toxic chemicals, including some that remain undisclosed, is shot down wells, vertically and horizontally. This breaks up (fractures) the rock and releases natural gas.
For a well-made animated illustration of this process, see the interactive graphic on the Gasland website. And while you’re there, sign up to host a Gasland houseparty. Gasland II was featured at the Wild and Scenic Fest. 
In some places where fracking is practiced, water supplies have become so contaminated that people can light their tap water on fire. Many people and animals have been sickened, and there’s no way to know how many deaths have been hastened or caused by these toxins in the environment. And the food supply is being sacrificed.
This is particularly germane to the Central Valley of California. Energy companies are more powerful than farmers, and they now threaten to turn agriculture land into industrial waste. Any gains from “clean burning” natural gas is more than erased by the methane, a potent greenhouse gas, with warming effects, that seeps from the ground around fracking wells. Other airborn pollutants waft forth as well.
Folks who live near gas fields in formerly clean rural areas are now complaining of watery eyes, shortness of breath and bloody noses due to ozone levels that have exceeded what people in L.A. and other major cities wheeze through on their worst pollution days. 
Seismic activity has increased around some fracking sites, yet the California locations proposed for this geologically destabilizing industrial process are close to the San Andreas Faultline. Yikes.
A regulatory process will not solve these problems. Fracking must be banned. Fracking is a real and present danger in California right now. We’ll need to stand together, mobilize, educate, apply grass-roots people-power pressure, and refuse to be quiet until it’s banned.
Please go to facebook.com/frackfreebuttecounty to keep up to date on anti-fracking work in Butte County and surrounding California areas. And next year, join us at the Wild and Scenic Film Fest. Ride a bike to contribute your energy to power the stage, dance to good music in the street, connect with fellow activists and see some great films.
[nggallery id=”116″]
