Films In the Festival

A Crude Awakening

An unforgettable and shocking wake-up call, this documentary offers the rock-solid argument that the era of cheap oil is in the past. Relentless and clear-eyed, this intensively-researched film drills deep into the uncomfortable realities of a world that is both addicted to fossil fuels and blissfully unaware of the looming "peak oil" crisis. Drawing on an international cast of maverick energy experts and thinkers, directors Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack debunk the conventional wisdom that oil production will continue to climb, and instead stare bleakly at a planet facing economic meltdown and conflict over its most valuable resource. Featuring a haunting score by Phillip Glass and a fascinating array of rare archival footage, the film explores oil’s rocky relationship with human progress in locales ranging from ancient Baku, Azerbaijan to dusty oilpatch town McCamey, Texas. Amidst a dark and disturbing vision of our future, A Crude Awakening hints at a humbler way of life built around sustainability and alternative energy, providing a visually stunning, boldly prophetic testament which provokes not just thought but action.

Kilowatt Ours

In response Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy speech in which Cheney makes the claim that America needs nearly 1900 new power plants in the next 20 years to meet projected electricity demands, filmmaker Jeff Barrie takes viewers on a journey from the coalmines of West Virginia to the solar panel fields of Florida as he discovers solutions to America's energy-related problems. Along the way, Jeff and his wife Heather share a plan to eliminate their use of coal and nuclear power at home by employing energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. Through their learning experience, viewers discover how they can save hundreds of dollars annually on energy bills, and use a portion of the savings to purchase renewable energy. Kilowatt Ours invites viewers to help build a “net zero nation” by conserving energy to the greatest extent possible at home, then using clean renewable energy to provide the electricity they use.

King Corn

Almost everything Americans eat contains corn: high fructose corn syrup, corn-fed meat, and corn-based processed foods are the staples of the modern diet.  Ready for an adventure and alarmed by signs of their generation’s bulging waistlines, college friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis know where to go to investigate.  Eighty years ago, Ian and Curt’s great-grandfathers lived just a few miles apart, in the same rural county in northern Iowa.  Now their great-grandsons are returning with a mission:  they will plant an acre of corn, follow their harvest into the world, and attempt to understand what they — and all of us — are really made of.

The Unforeseen

An ambitious west Texas farm boy with grandiose plans tires of living at the mercy of nature and sets out to find a life with more control. He heads to Austin where he becomes a real estate developer and skillfully capitalizes on the growth of this 1970s boomtown. At the peak of his powers, he transforms 4,000 acres of pristine Hill Country into one of the state’s largest and fastest selling subdivisions. When the development threatens a local treasure, a fragile limestone aquifer and a naturally spring-fed swimming hole, the community fights back. In the conflict that ensues, we see in miniature a struggle that today plays out in communities across the country.

Featuring interviews with Robert Redford, Willie Nelson, the iconic Texas Governor Ann Richards, environmentalist Wendell Berry and many others, THE UNFORESEEN is a powerful meditation on the American dream – on the destruction of the natural world as it falls victim to the cannibalizing forces of unchecked development. It is an intricate tale of personal hopes, victories and failures; and of debates over land, water and the public good. 93 minutes, www.theunforeseenfilm.com

Everything's Cool

Everything’s Cool is a toxic comedy offering a humorous (and serious) look behind the scenes at some of the prophets and players attempting to engage the public in understanding what’s going on with global warming. It’s also about the climate of disinformation that's enabled America to be so slow in addressing climate change issues. 

The film features writer/activist Bill McKibben, author of "The End of Nature;" investigative journalist Ross Gelbspan, author of "The Heat is On" and "Boiling Point;" Heidi Cullen, the climate scientist who has introduced coverage of global warming to The Weather Channel; Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz; Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, authors of "The Death of Environmentalism." 89 minutes, www.everythingscool.org,

Garbage

Concerned for the future of his new baby boy Sebastian, writer director Andrew Nisker takes an average urban family, the McDonalds, and asks them to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. He then takes them on a journey to find out where it all goes and what it’s doing to the world. From organic waste to the stuff they flush down the potty, the plastic bags they use to the water they drink out of bottles, the air pollution they create when transporting the kids around, to using lights at Christmas, the McDonalds discover that for every action there is a reaction that affects them and the entire planet. Everyday life under a microscope has never been so revealing. By the end of this trashy odyssey, you are truly inspired to revolutionize your lifestyle for the sake of future generations.

http://www.GarbageRevolution.com

The View and the Vision

As the Cape wind project is inching closer towards approval, we should also look towards other projects for inspiration.  The winds of change have been blowing in Denmark for generations and presently supply 25% of their energy needs through clean technologies. Watch this short documentary of local filmmaker, Liz Argo’s, visit to Denmark, to get a sense of how communities can thrive from local power.  The majesty of the wind made visible is the story of the View and the Vision.

Film produced for Clean Power Now, www.cleanpowernow.org.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Ever heard of the EV1? Ever seen a commercial for one? According to writer/director Chris Paine, chances are you never did. He sets out in his documentary to answer the titular question by determining the various degrees of liability of Detroit, the oil companies, inadequate battery technology, The California Air Resources Board, consumer apathy, the federal government, and hydrogen fuel cells. Similar to the approach Morgan Spurlock took with his 2004 award-winning, wake-up smack-in-the-face Super Size Me, Paine's films, presented as a litigious argument, illuminates a problem that most know exists but fail or simply do not care to recognize.

http://www.evconfidential.com

An Inconvenient Truth

With the savvy of a trial lawyer and yes- good humor- Al Gore presents the case for anthropogenic climate change (global warming caused by humans) with devastating clarity. Those who deny the global warming trend are sent scurrying off like cockroaches from the flashlight beacon of Gores in depth knowledge. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, compiled the data that Al Gore refers to in “An Inconvenient Truth”. Imagine the UN and a VP teaming up to win an Oscar Award and the Noble prize. This isn’t a movie it’s a mission. Join us.

www.climatecrisis.net