Joshua Boaz Pribanic

Joshua Boaz Pribanic (born 20 March 1982) is an American film director, editor, investigative reporter and founder of the investigative news non-profit, Public Herald. He’s best known for his award-winning documentary films on fracking, Triple Divide(c. 2013) and Triple Divide [Redacted] (c. 2017), and for his role as Editor-in-Chief and investigative journalist at Public Herald (cited in over 200 publications). Pribanic’s 2020 documentary INVISIBLE HAND showcases the “Rights of Nature” movement worldwide and will be his third film collaboration with actor Mark Ruffalo — signed on as an Executive Producer — and his third documentary with co-director Melissa Troutman.

Personal Life

Joshua Pribanic grew up in Sandusky, Ohio and graduated from Sandusky High School. In 2001, he attended Bowling Green State University where he majored in Literature with a minor in Environmental Science. In 2009, he was certified as a Permaculturalist at Oberlin College studying under the Australian Regenerative Agriculturalist Darren Doherty.

From 2007 through 2012 Pribanic was responsible for the start of Erie Fresh, the first multi-grower Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in Erie County, Ohio and the areas first volunteer based community gardens in 2007. He would end up using the practice of Permaculture to promote regenerative agriculture projects in his hometown of Sandusky, Ohio. At the peak of his work in Sandusky, Pribanic operated several community gardens, a farmer’s market, and a CSA that served over 100 families from 15 farms in the northern Ohio region.

In 2010, as a freelance journalist, Pribanic was contacted by residents of Potter County, Pennsylvania to visit sites where unconventional oil and gas well drilling, a.k.a. “fracking,” was permitted. In 2011, after touring gas wells in Potter, Pribanic joined up with local reporter Melissa Troutman. The two journalists immediately began working together on the documentary film Triple Divide and successfully launched the investigative news non-profit Public Herald in the same year.

In 2012, in order to finish Triple Divide, Pribanic’s agricultural work was passed on to Oberlin College’s City Fresh program operated by the New Agrarian Center at the George Jones Farm.

Career

In 2011, Pribanic co-founded the investigative news non-profit Public Herald with Melissa Troutman, who’s mission has been to hold those accountable who would put the public at risk. As Editor-in-Chief, Pribanic’s reports have been cited in over 200 publications with appearances in Rolling Stone, NPR, Marketplace, The New York Time and Forbes; with 21 academic study citations.

In March 2013, Pribanic and Troutman released Triple Divide to a standing room only theater in Coudersport, Pennsylvania (the theater is owned by the former Adelphia CEO, John Rigas, who had to grant permission for the premier from his jail cell). Actor Mark Ruffalo signed on as a co-narrator after receiving an early cut of the documentary. Triple Divide quickly drew acclaim and was screened in over 300 U.S. cities from 2013-2015 while appearing in several film festivals. The documentary highlighted specific water contamination cases related to fracking that were being left off the books by state and federal agencies, and detailed how state regulators were operating with questionable conduct by misinterpreting laws to the benefit of industry and allowing radioactive shale gas waste pits to be buried illegally.

Triple Divide continues to screen in colleges and communities worldwide and has inspired the creation of a fiction-feature film, Unearth (in post-production).

Pribanic appeared in 2014 on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in its first episode on fracking called “The Benefits of Fracking” alongside Public Herald sources impacted by unconventional natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania.

In 2017, Pribanic led the way for Public Herald’s release of two groundbreaking complaint reports that reshaped the history of water contamination cases associated with fracking. The report uncovered 9,442 complaint investigations by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) that were previously unreleased, with over 4,000 drinking water cases being directly related to fracking, and 178 cases of regulatory criminal misconduct.. The data in the report suggested fracking’s impact to drinking water supplies was in fact widespread and systemic, contrary to the national study released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas: Impacts from the Hydraulic Fracturing Water Cycle on Drinking Water Resources” that failed to include the complaint data.

The Public Herald complaint reports were a key subject in Pribanic’s second documentary Triple Divide [Redacted], released in 2017 as a 52-minute feature covering the drinking water complaint investigations and Public Herald’s call for a criminal investigation of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

In the months after the complaint reports and the release of Triple Divide [Redacted], hundreds of residents across the state flooded Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office with phone calls for months demanding an investigation of PA DEP — citing Public Herald’s reporting. The stories forced the Attorney General’s office to launch a probe into DEP misconduct regarding its handling of oil and gas complaints. As of 2019, sources reveal that dozens of DEP officials have had to testify before grand juries convened by Attorney General Shapiro.

In 2018, Pribanic’s reporting on an untested fracking wastewater treatment facility helped lead to the Seneca Nation of Indians intervening and eventually shutting down the project. Pribanic was threatened with legal action by Buffalo Bill owner Terry Pegula for his reporting on the radioactive issues surrounding the projects claims about fracking wastewater.

In 2019, Pribanic broke an exclusive story that Clorox started selling pool salt made from fracking wastewater. The story is the first to explain how salt byproducts from fracking waste are entering the commercial market in stores like Walmart, Sam’s Club, Home Depot and Lowes in Pennsylvania.

Pribanic does not submit to awards for his investigative reports at Public Herald and finds the practice to be contradictory to journalism ethics and standards.

Pribanic has collaborated with award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo in three documentary films, and his work as an investigative journalist has been awarded support from: James L. Knight Foundation, Colcom Foundation, 11th Hour Project, Heinz Endowments, Investigative News Network (now Institute for Nonprofit News), and Tesla Motors.

Controversy & Activism

A number of fake news outlets such as Energy-in-Depth and Natural Gas Now have attempted to attack Pribanic’s reporting on fracking and his documentary film work.

In the winter of 2018 Pribanic spoke out openly against a proposed fracking wastewater treatment facility at the headwaters of the Triple Divide region in Potter County during a DEP public hearing, citing the unspoken radioactive risks associated with the wastewater.

Pribanic’s public appearances and articles published with Melissa Troutman at the Public Herald would capture the attention of the Seneca Nation of Indians who’s drinking water supply was 60 miles downstream of the proposed facility. Public Herald in collaboration with the Seneca Nation of Indians drafted a letter in March of 2018 to ask congress for support in opposing the development of the facility. The letter, articles at Public Herald, and public appearances by Pribanic drew criticism of Buffalo Bill’s owner Terry Pegula, who’s oil and gas company JKLM Energy was expected to be the sole customer of the treatment plant.

Pegula and the treatment facility owner sent “cease and desist” letters to Pribanic, Melissa Troutman, The Seneca Nation of Indians, Public Herald, and local activist Laurie Barr in an attempt to stop further opposition and open discussion about the project. The letters requested a number of articles and social media posts referencing shale gas radioactivity at Public Herald be taken down or the authors would face a defamation lawsuit.

Despite Pegula’s threat of a lawsuit Public Herald refused to back off the story. Public Herald’s attorney Victor Pribanic would call the letters “a baseless attempt to thwart open discussion of a controversial waste facility.”

In less than a month after the cease and desist letters were sent, facing increasing public opposition, Pegula’s company would back out of the project forcing the local officials and company owner to abandon it all together.

Film Festivals & Awards

Triple Divide, Triple Divide [Redacted] Awards and Festivals

• People’s Choice Award, Real to Reel Film Festival
• Award of Merit, Accolade Global Film Competition
• Humanitarian Award, Accolade Global Film Competition
• Runner Up, Audience Award, ReadingFilmFest
• New York Film & TV Festival
• Maryland International Film Festival
• Erie International Film Festival
• Colorado Environmental Film Festival
• Harrisburg-Hershey Film Festival

INVISIBLE HAND Awards & Festivals:

Filmography

As Director, Writer, Editor and Producer

• Triple Divide (2013)
• Triple Divide [Redacted] (2017)
• INVISIBLE HAND (2020)
• No Majesty (2021) (post-production)

External Links

• Joshua B. Pribanic on FilmFreeway
• Joshua B. Pribanic on IMDB
• 2015 IRE Conference Speakers – Open records laws: Strategies for successful negotiations
• Bullfrog Films

PRESS: See a complete list of Pribanic’s 200+ appearances in the press »