Sneak Preview of "Windfall"

[Amy Warren, LMHC / WQ Mag Columnist]

If you’ve ever thought that anything “green” is environmentally friendly, think again. Laura Israel’s documentary “Windfall” tackles the subject of wind energy from the personal viewpoints of residents affected by it. The prospect of leasing land to developers for the erection of wind turbines, an energy-efficient alternative to electricity, initially seemed liked a win/win situation to some financially struggling residents of Meredith, New York. But for some of those same residents, that reality quickly becomes anything but friendly.

 

What the residents didn’t realize when they signed leasing agreements is that the constant noise produced by the wind turbines would disrupt the peacefulness of their community in more ways than one. “Windfall” gives voice to the residents of Meredith through videotapes of contentious town hall meetings and interviews. There are residents on both sides of the wind turbine debate, but what is heard loud and clear is the sound of the wind turbines, likened to the constant sound of a vacuum cleaner. The windmills in this film aren’t the kind you might recall from childhood.  Each blade on the wind turbines weighs 22,000 pounds, making it easy to understand how the noise of the wind becomes more than an inconspicuous hum.

 

Residents living close to the towers have developed symptoms since their installation – symptoms like sleep disturbance, tinnitus, headaches, nausea, vertigo and tachycardia, to name a few. The turning blades that cast monstrous shadows across the roads and community make some residents feel as if they are being driven crazy. A few residents have simply walked away from their hard-earned homes in order to escape the turbines. For viewers not easily convinced, adding expert testimony and research results to the film might help to further solidify residents’ complaints.

 

The film raises the issue of the ethics behind the wind industry, an industry that receives significant tax breaks and fails to give all the facts. In the film, the absence of the developers is reflective of their absence since requiring the residents to sign confidentiality statements with their leasing contracts. The “gag orders” leave at least some of the residents feeling like their life has been signed away -- and their world as they knew it changed forever.

 

Meredith, New York lends itself to gorgeous cinematography. The land is lush, green, pristine. The camera captures the shadows which darken this community on so many levels. To litter this rural community with towering monstrosities that reach high into the sky seems a crime in itself. Add to that, the disruption of serenity and the physical and emotional effects on nearby residents, and it becomes hard to leave the film without viewing anything that changes people’s lives so completely as totally reprehensible.

 

“Windfall” will be shown at the Sarasota Film Festival on Sunday, April 10^th@3:45pm and Monday, April 11@3:45pm. Director and Producer Laura Israel is expected to be hand, offering a rare opportunity for a Q&A with the filmmaker after the film.