In Production
Methane Rising
Methane Rising is a modern environmental western about persistence, reinvention, and the grit required to build climate solutions in the real world. Now seeking project partners to carry this film forward to impact!
About the film
Methane Rising: A Climate Story Hidden Beneath Our Feet
Across the United States, tens of thousands of abandoned coal mines continue to leak methane into the atmosphere. While most climate conversations focus on emissions we can see, this powerful greenhouse gas escapes largely unnoticed from tunnels and shafts left behind by a fading industry. Methane Rising uncovers this overlooked challenge and reveals why addressing it may be one of the fastest opportunities we have to slow near-term climate change.
At the center of the story is Chris Caskey, a chemist turned entrepreneur who leaves the security of a traditional career to pursue an unlikely mission in the mountains of Colorado. Working alongside engineers, contractors, and former coal communities, Chris confronts a problem that is equal parts environmental, technical, and human. Through muddy job sites, mountain expeditions, and hard-earned setbacks, the film follows the determination required to turn an ambitious idea into a real-world climate solution.
More than a film about methane, Methane Rising is a story about ingenuity, grit, and the people building a different future with their own hands. It challenges the idea that climate action is distant or abstract, showing instead how innovation emerges from local communities willing to tackle difficult problems. By supporting this film, you are helping bring attention to a critical climate solution and the people working every day to make it possible.
Why now?
The world doesn’t need more climate doom. It needs stories about solutions.
Climate change can feel overwhelming. We are surrounded by headlines about rising temperatures, extreme weather, and political division, yet stories about practical solutions rarely break through the noise. At a moment when people are asking what can actually be done, methane has emerged as one of the fastest opportunities to slow warming. But one major source remains largely overlooked: abandoned coal mines, which continue releasing methane long after mining operations have ceased.
Methane Rising tells a different kind of climate story. Instead of focusing on distant targets or abstract policy debates, the film follows a community-led effort to solve a tangible problem through ingenuity, persistence, and hard work. As societies search for climate solutions that are practical, scalable, and locally grounded, Chris Caskey’s work offers a hopeful reminder that meaningful change often begins with people willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work.
Narrative Arc
Chris and his team developed a creative solution to fund methane destruction: burn the methane in a kiln creating heat to fire bricks and tiles to sell. The film opens with the hopeful energy of buying the abandoned Bowie #1 mine in Paonia, and quickly descends into the muddy labor of building a methane capture system. As Chris pushes deeper into the work, the central tension emerges: can methane mitigation become financially viable before money and investors dry out like the surrounding landscape?
As debt mounts, construction hurdles arise, and the climate continues warming, this tension plays out to illustrate the grit we need to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Production Partners
Methane Rising is being brought to life in collaboration with Impact Media Lab and Household Film, two Colorado-based production companies bringing deep experience in artistic documentary and commercial storytelling, science communication, and impact-driven filmmaking to the project.
Help bring methane rising to life
After more than three years of filming, Methane Rising is entering its final stretch. We're working to raise the funds needed to complete the film production and enter post production, allowing us to share this powerful story of climate solutions, community, and reinvention with audiences everywhere.
Your support can help us cross the finish line!
Through our nonprofit fiscal sponsor, Denver Film Society, donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Contributions of all sizes make a difference, and donors giving $2,500 or more will receive special recognition in the film, with additional credit opportunities for larger gifts.
Ready to support the film? Donate by credit card through the Denver Film Society landing page, or contact us to learn about giving by check, bank transfer, or stock transfer—options that can help avoid credit card processing fees.
Thank you for helping us bring this story to the world!