{"id":14565,"date":"2011-03-20T05:30:07","date_gmt":"2011-03-20T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=14565"},"modified":"2012-02-03T07:45:30","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T12:45:30","slug":"windfall-the-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2011\/windfall-the-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"“Windfall”: The movie (Review)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Research has suggested that their constant low-frequency noise and the flickering shadows they cast affect public health”<\/h4>\n

\u2014Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post<\/a> (3\/18\/11)<\/p>\n

\u00b7<\/span>
\nFaucets don\u2019t spit fire in \u201cWindfall<\/a>,\u201d making its local premiere Saturday at the Environmental Film Festival. But incendiary water may be the only side effect not associated with wind power in Laura Israel\u2019s absorbing, sobering documentary about the lures and perils of green technology.<\/p>\n

With the Oscar-nominated \u201cGasland<\/a>\u201d (and its flame-throwing plumbing) enlightening viewers on the environmental and public health implications of natural gas drilling, and with nuclear power\u2019s reputation in meltdown as a global community turns an anxious gaze toward Japan, some hardy souls may see hope in wind power. After seeing \u201cWindfall,\u201d those optimists will probably emerge with their faith, if not shaken, at least blown strongly off course.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

\u201cWindfall\u201d takes place in Meredith, N.Y., a once-thriving dairy-farming community of fewer than 2,000 tucked into a bucolic Catskills valley that is teetering between post-agricultural poverty and hip gentrification. When Irish energy company Airtricity offers leases to build windmills on some residents\u2019 properties, the deals initially seem like a win-win. A little extra money in the pockets of struggling farmers, an environmentally sound technology, those graceful white wings languorously slicing the afternoon sky \u2014 what\u2019s not to like?<\/p>\n

Plenty, as the concerned residents in \u201cWindfall\u201d find out. Not only do the 400-foot, 600,000-pound turbines look much less benign up close, but research has suggested that their constant low-frequency noise and the flickering shadows they cast affect public health; what\u2019s more, they\u2019ve been known to fall, catch fire and throw off potentially lethal chunks of snow and ice.<\/p>\n

Soon Meredith succumbs to drastic divisions between boosters, who see Airtricity\u2019s offers as a godsend for the economically strapped community, and skeptics, who see the leases as little more than green-washed carpetbaggery. \u201cWindfall\u201d chronicles the ensuing, agonizing fight, which largely splits lifelong residents and the relatively new \u201cdownstaters,\u201d who\u2019ve moved in from Manhattan and want to keep their views and property values pristine. <\/p>\n

Using artful collages of maps and signage, a rootsy soundtrack and crisp digital cinematography, Israel provides a vivid backdrop to \u201cWindfall\u2019s\u201d most gripping story, the emotionally charged human conflict that results in a genuine cliffhanger of a third act. Wisely letting Meredith\u2019s residents speak for themselves, the filmmaker avoids simple good-guy-bad-guy schematics, instead enabling each side to state its case.<\/p>\n

Israel, a film editor making her feature debut here, has owned a cabin in Meredith for more than 20 years, a fact never made clear in \u201cWindfall,\u201d which is, nonetheless, filmed with careful, dispassionate distance. In large part, the documentary follows Israel\u2019s process of discovery. Although she wasn\u2019t approached for a lease, she initially supported wind power in the community, she said in an interview. \u201cI wanted a turbine on my property, which motivated me to learn more about it,\u201d she explained. \u201cA lot of the people in the film are illustrating the process I went through, from initial excitement to having it unravel as you find out more about the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comparing the situation in Meredith with similar ones in other New York communities, Israel conveys an alarming portrait of small, economically vulnerable towns being cynically targeted by Big Wind \u2014 slick, savvy energy companies less interested in the public good than in profits, which are virtually ensured thanks to generous federal and state tax breaks, as well as the deep pockets of investment banks. \u201cIt\u2019s not green energy,\u201d notes one observer. \u201cIt\u2019s greed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Meredith, a handful of earnest, common-sense heroes try to separate fact from hype, do the right thing and navigate thorny questions of civic progress by way of small-town democracy. The latter isn\u2019t always pretty, as anyone who has attended a town hall or school board meeting knows. But \u201cWindfall\u201d makes it look exciting, inspiring and, most important, stubbornly enduring. Last year, the Environmental Film Festival helped launch \u201cGasland\u2019s\u201d grass-roots tour, during which the film pulled the veil from an otherwise opaque subject. With luck, \u201cWindfall\u201d will soon embark on a similar eye-opening journey. Catch it if you can.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Research has suggested that their constant low-frequency noise and the flickering shadows they cast affect public health” \u2014Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post (3\/18\/11) \u00b7 Faucets don\u2019t spit fire in \u201cWindfall,\u201d making its local premiere Saturday at the Environmental Film Festival. But incendiary water may be the only side effect not associated with wind power in Laura Israel\u2019s absorbing, sobering documentary about the lures and perils of green technology. With the Oscar-nominated \u201cGasland\u201d (and its flame-throwing plumbing) enlightening viewers on the environmental and public health implications of natural gas drilling, and with nuclear power\u2019s reputation in meltdown as a global community turns an anxious gaze toward Japan, some hardy souls may see hope in wind power. After seeing \u201cWindfall,\u201d those optimists will probably emerge with their faith, if not shaken, at least blown strongly off course. \u201cWindfall\u201d takes place in Meredith, N.Y., a once-thriving dairy-farming community of fewer than 2,000 tucked into a bucolic Catskills valley that is teetering between post-agricultural poverty and hip gentrification. When Irish energy company Airtricity offers leases to build windmills on some residents\u2019 properties, the deals initially seem like a win-win. A little extra money in the pockets of struggling farmers, an environmentally sound technology, those graceful white wings languorously slicing the afternoon sky \u2014 what\u2019s not to like? Plenty, as the concerned residents in \u201cWindfall\u201d find out. Not only do the 400-foot, 600,000-pound turbines look much less benign up close, but research has suggested that their constant low-frequency noise and the flickering shadows they cast affect public health; what\u2019s more, they\u2019ve been known to fall, catch fire and throw off potentially lethal chunks of snow and ice. Soon Meredith succumbs to drastic divisions between boosters, who see Airtricity\u2019s offers as a godsend for the economically strapped community, and skeptics, who see the leases as littleRead More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[171,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}