In Oren Jacoby’s documentary “This Is Not A Drill,” three grassroots environmentalists team with descendants of John D. Rockefeller to take on the country’s most powerful oil and gas companies.

Justin J. Pearson rallies a multiracial grassroots coalition to try to defeat a crude oil pipeline in Memphis, Tenn. Roishetta Ozane, a mother of six from Louisiana, transforms personal loss from multiple unprecedented hurricanes in her town into political action, taking her fight from the storm-ravaged streets to the halls of Congress. And Sharon Wilson, a former oil insider turned methane hunter, uses infrared cameras to expose invisible, deadly gases pouring from fracking sites and pipelines in Texas.

Backing them are rebellious Rockefeller heirs, who have turned against their family’s oil empire to expose ExxonMobil’s “decades-long cover-up deception.” Together, according to the film’s production notes, the coalition uncovers what they call Big Oil’s “Big Con” – an industry doubling down on fossil fuels while disguising the truth.

“When democratic institutions and regulations are gutted, corporate greed is given free rein, and the public good is endangered, how can we fight back?,” Jacoby said.  “How do we save our communities? We discovered three extraordinary individuals who have stepped up to show us the way. They are taking on the fight to stop oil and gas companies from ignoring the warnings of science and expanding the infrastructure that is the biggest driver of climate change. Each has something real and immediate at stake in this fight.”

Variety spoke to Jacoby about “This Is Not A Drill,” which premiered at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival.

I traveled around the country for a year looking for people who were already feeling the climate crisis, personally, and were effectively fighting back. I was lucky to meet three charismatic and brave individuals who were on track to, or had already achieved, significant victories. They, their families, and communities had suffered in some way at the hands of the oil and gas industry. They weren’t environmentalists or activists until they realized that no one was coming to help them.

We started shooting in late 2021 and did our last shoot this summer outside Elon Musk’s XAI facility in Memphis.

The members of the Rockefeller family we met making this film were all reluctant to be in the public eye.  But they are willing to do whatever is needed to make Big Oil accountable and to support the work of grassroots leaders like Justin, Sharon, and Roishetta to stop the build-out that is accelerating the climate crisis.

The most challenging aspect is the widely held attitude that the fight to address this crisis has already been lost, so there is no point in carrying on. That’s not the way Justin, Sharon, and Roishetta feel. Over the years, despite facing indifference or opposition from whichever political party is in power, the folks in our film carry on. They’re determined to keep fighting because they know that we can’t afford to give up.

Even though our crews faced harassment on public roads outside oil and gas facilities, our film is not about one legal case against one company. It’s a look at the failure of an entire industry to tell the truth and stop endangering the lives of its fellow citizens. We are confident that a distributor will see our film for what it is — a hopeful story, proving that even in troubled times, we can stand up for what we believe and make a difference.

We had support from Patagonia Films, the Ford Foundation, and philanthropic individuals. We are still raising funds.