SullivanPatrick8

Sullivan Patrick Portfolio

A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash, Basil Gelpke, Ray McCormack, 2006
 * 1. Title, director and release year?**

Our society relies heavily on oil and we face a giant problem in replacing oil as an energy source. We must stop using oil and find more sustainable energy sources before we are forced to due to a the absence of oil.
 * 2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film?**

We rely very heavily on oil which is a non renewable energy source. Our society cannot continue anywhere near the way we live today without oil. Because oil is a non renewable energy source, a striving economy where it was being extracted will not survive once it is gone.
 * 3. What sustainability problems does the film draw out?**

The film explains how invaluable oil is and how cheap it is being extracted. It explains how cheap oil is compared to any other energy source, which makes one realize how much of a problem we are facing when we must start using another energy source. I enjoyed the section explaining the correlation between oil and war. This helps show how valuable this resource is and what people will do to get it. It shows oil as this negative force in our society which causes many problems and has put our society in this very difficult situation.
 * 4. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?**

I was not convinced by the statements that current technology is nowhere close to being capable of replacing oil with other energy sources. I have seen statistics that we do have the technology to replace oil, just not the motivation or resources. The way this was shown in the movie was over-done and made it unbelievable because it was expressed in such a blatantly bias manner.
 * 5. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by?**

This film compels me to seek out what alternative energy research is being done, and what technology already exists.
 * 6. What additional information does this film compel you to seek out? Where do you want to dig deeper and what connections do you want to make with other issues, factors, problems, etc.?**

This film best addresses people who take oil for granted and use unnecessary amounts of oil just because they can. This film may make people realize just how valuable oil really is as an energy source, not just as a monetary cost.
 * 7. What audiences does the film best address? What kind of imagination is fostered in viewers? Do you think the film is likely to change the way viewers think about and act on environmental problems?**

The film suggests that we stop using as much oil as we can by driving or flying less, or using more renewable energy. It suggests that we stop obsessing over oil and start finding alternative energy sources.
 * 8. What kinds of action or points of intervention are suggested by the film?**

This film could have shown more about pollution and other issues that oil burning has left us with.
 * 9. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value?**