The Red Wing Republican Eagle’s Michael Brun reports on a local boy done well in Red Wing native’s fracking film debuts:
Former Red Wing resident Jim Tittle received a call from his mother two years ago that an open-pit frac sand mine was being considered for the Hay Creek bluffs south of the city.
“It really threw me for a loop,” said Tittle, who remembered the area well from his youth.
The curious Tittle set off with a video camera to research the issue of frac sand mining. His work culminated into the documentary film “The Price of Sand,” premiering Friday March 22 at the Sheldon Theatre in Red Wing.
The documentary film will also be screened at the Grandview Theater, 1830 Grand Avenue, in St. Paul on March 28, 7:00 p.m.
Brun describes the film-making process:
The documentary features interviews with people on both sides of the frac sand debate, from displaced homeowners to drivers who found work with mining companies. The goal of the film was to raise awareness of the human impact of frac sand mining, Tittle said.
“I want people to see other peoples’ stories,” Tittle said. “Wherever I could find a person affected by this, I’d go there and talk to them.”
Tittle first traveled to mines in Le Sueur County and western Wisconsin, resulting in a series of YouTube videos that garnered more than 10,000 views in the summer of 2011. But he did not stop there.
“I came to realize I could either make more YouTube videos or explore the issue deeper,” Tittle said — and explore he did. Over the next 15 months he would travel the region interviewing people for a full-length documentary.
Tittle crowdsourced some of the production costs. Read the whole story at the Republican Eagle.
Here’s the freshly edited trailer:
Photo: Bird’s eye view of a Wisconsin sand mind. (Photo by Jim Tittle. Used with permission.)
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