StephanieCaouetteFilmAnnotation9


 * 1.** **Title, director and release year?**

The name of the film is Blind Spot, directed by Aldofo Doring released in 2008

2. **What is the central argument or narrative of the film?**

The film is centered around the fact that as a country we have become addicted to oil and all it has to offer us in terms of cheap goods, freedom and an enjoyable lifestyle. The era of peak oil is upon us and the film argues that we are not prepared to handle the ramifications of running out of this black gold.

Humans have been using energy since we have been living and our oil consumption has exceeded oil discovery depleting our reserves. Once we run out of oil virtually every sector of our economy will be dramatically affected, in fact used to be less than 20% of work done with fuel fed machines and now almost everything uses fuel for manpower. The film addresses the fact that we need to either decrease our consumption or create an alternative quickly before our entire way of life is disrupted.


 * 3.** **What sustainability problems does the film draw out?**

There are many different sustainability problems addressed in the film “Blind Spot” including the economical, cultural, and ecological reliance on oil. World oil consumption has exceeded the amount of oil that is being found, which is going to negatively affect economies around the world. We are extracting too fast and there is a point where if we extracts too much we reach its peak and the oil production starts declining. The sustainability problem with this is the fact that although we know that we are approaching that peak we still have not fully addressed the problem and come up with a viable solution.

If we wait until we are in the crisis we will be very limited in the options we can take, our leadership need to start taking the problem seriously before it is too late or else our industry and way of life will suffer dramatically. It is common sense that we are running out of oil but it is universally ignored by all countries; instead of coming up with solutions we put a lot of money into maintaining what we have and not helping the situation.

Another sustainability issue is the fact that advertizing and our free market system encourage consumers to buy new things all the time. These new products are expected to be cheap, quick to market, and usually travel far distances to get to the consumer. These goods are putting even more of a strain on our oil consumption and our population feels as if we are entitled to use and buy as much as we want, whenever we want.


 * 4. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?**

I thought at the beginning the old Shell commercial was extremely interesting. I went through and explained how much petroleum products are used every day from toothpaste, windshields, modern medicine, penicillin, carpets, musical instruments and states “Who knows what better things will come from the world of petroleum”. This old commercial just shows our reliance on petroleum and all of the consumer products that have been produced because of it. It really brought to light the fact that everything we use every day has some connection to oil.

Another persuasive argument was a sequence of events that will likely happen as we approach this energy crisis. They stated that an energy crisis almost always turns into a food crisis because when oil prices go up, it costs more to fuel the farm equipment subsequently raising the prices in the supermarket. When this happens, the poorer communities suffer greatly because they can no longer afford their food.

Lastly, the part of the film that focused on our media was extremely persuasive. Our media has a lot to do with what we know about, millions of dollars have been spent on campaigns and tax breaks from the government to hide information from the public. The film stated that automobile alliance lie all the time about how safe tailpipe emissions actually are and that they kill any alternatives because it will cost them profit. One of my favorite quotes from the film was that “It’s a good deal easier to lie to people when they don’t want to hear the truth” because the fact of the matter is that people would rather hear that everything was going well then to know the truth and know their impact.


 * 5. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by?**

I was not as convinced with the part of the film that talked about our blind spot; that the fact oil consumption is removed from us in either time or space so it doesn’t affect us right away therefore we don’t really care about it as much. I think that a lot of people do care about the issue, there is just very little that we can do to really fix it on the individual level. They compared our denial to the Holocaust and how the Jews allowed themselves to believe that the gas chamber was a bathroom, I think that this was a bit extreme and not true or convincing at all.


 * 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.?**

I would have liked to see more information about what we can do as individual to decrease our impact on the oil situation, besides the obvious things. I also wanted to hear a little bit more about what our government is proposing as a solution to the problem, I’m sure it has been talked about, and it would have been nice to know what has been said and what is in the works currently.


 * 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?**

I think that the film is for all viewers, anyone who consumes. It makes you realize all the different consumer products that you use and think about if we run our of oil, what is going to be used to make these products. I think that it might make people change their consumer behaviors but there was not much in the way of fixing the problem individually.


 * 8. What kinds of action or points of intervention are suggested by the film?**

As stated before I don’t think that the film really gave any type of intervention on a personal level, it was more about informing the viewer that we use oil in everything we do and that we need to start thinking of a solution for when we run out of it.


 * 9. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value?**

I think that they could have added a little bit about the alternatives that are out there, and what the transition would be like if we had to switch our entire economy over to a different energy source. Also, they could have added a bit more about what the government’s role will be in all of this, the film didn’t address the policies or laws that might come into play.