THE DAKOTA BOOM, our new documentary film.

“THe Dakota Boom” tells the story of Stanley, North Dakota (population 1,300) that sits atop the largest oil discovery in the history of the North American continent. In 2006, the United States Geological Survey estimated there to be more than 200 billion barrels of crude oil resting in a previously unreachable formation beneath western North Dakota. With oil climbing to record prices and new drilling technologies becoming available, the area has become a free-for-all, as oil companies descend on small rural towns to negotiate land rights and mineral deeds with farmers and then start drilling into the shale miles below. We meet John Warberg, a lifelong farmer who received a life-changing call from a Texan oil company while riding his tractor, and now receives monthly royalty checks for a well on his property, relieving some of the burdens of long winters and dry springs. Behind a bar on Main Street we encounter a group of oil workers, or “roughnecks” as they’re called, who relate the dangers of their industry and show us around a drilling rig outside of town. Through revealing interviews and breathtaking imagery of the northern plains, “The Dakota Boom” takes us to the town of Stanley and documents how life has changed since the beginning of this modern day oil boom.