TuttleJPFilm9

John Peter Tuttle Film Annotation #9 – Fuel Word Count: 1,024 1. Title, director and release year? “Fuel” is a 2008 film directed by Josh Tickell. 2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film? As the name would suggest, “Fuel” deals with the issue of fuel – in this case, the world’s declining oil supply. It starts with a discussion of where oil originally came from, and how much it is used in modern society – for heating, transportation, materials, etc, then continues on to discuss the issues with widespread use of oil. The film quickly moves into a discussion of biodiesel and other alternative forms of fuel, focusing on, for the most part, cars. The latter part of the film discusses potential alternative biofuels – algae, biodiesel, biomass, etc, and what sorts of research scientists are doing into using these sorts of sources of energy in cars. It also discusses alternative forms of energy for electricity – wind and solar, in particular. 3. How is the argument or narrative made and sustained? How much scientific information is provided, for example? Does the film have emotional appeal? The movie provides excellent background information on oil, explaining the scientific details of where it came from, and how oil is processed. The film uses interviews with people involved with energy-related industries, as well as quite well-done animations and graphics to make its points. The film does use emotional appeal, explaining how the director – who moved from Australia to the United States – was surprised at how much different the environment was (and not in a good way), and how oil processing is causing fertility and health problems in certain communities. 4. What sustainability problems does the film draw out? Political? Legal? Economic? Technological? Media and Informational? Organizational? Educational? Behavioral? Cultural? Ecological? The film discusses some of the ecological issues of oil – the pollution caused by the byproducts of oil processing. In discussing educational issues, the film also manages to cover media and informational issues, showing how oil companies made ads that were shown to students in schools, covering up – or just not mentioning – the accidents they have had. Cultural issues are mentioned; namely, advertising for cars, and how car companies advertise non-green cars, convincing people that they need cars that are bad for the environment, and often overkill; customers perceptions of diesel cars do not match up with the ones that are actually available now. There are also political issues – the United States government subsidizing larger vehicles – Hummers, etc. – when they could be subsidizing greener cars – ones running on electricity or biodiesel, for example. There are behavioral and cultural issues – people simply do not normally think about the dwindling oil supply; most people seem to take it for granted, which is not particularly surprising, given how much it is used nowadays. 5. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why? The part at the beginning of the movie, where the director mentions a science fair judge who wanted to disqualify his project about water quality, was quite striking; it showed how there is corruption in these sorts of situations. The parts about how particular communities were polluted by accidents by oil companies that never get publicized normally were particularly persuasive, as well as the discussion of hiding pollution information from workers, not letting them know about hazards on the job. 6. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why? <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">There were not too many parts of the film I was not compelled by; while it did get a tad slow at times, overall, it was good. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">7. What audiences does the film best address? Why? <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">The movie seems to mostly address the general public; however, due to the length of the film, I would say it would mostly appeal to people who are already interested in these sorts of issues. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in alternative energy, particularly for cars. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">8. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value? <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">The film is already pretty educational; it does a good job of explaining the issues it explores, and provides enough background information. In terms of educating the general public, compared to the other film we have seen for this course, it could use to be a bit shorter, as it might attract a larger audience that way. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">9. What kinds of action and points of intervention are suggested by the film? If the film itself does not suggest corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine being effective. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">The film does discuss how Toyota has been making greener cars; other car companies have been producing their own hybrid cars after seeing how well the Prius has been selling. Getting more companies to sell biodiesel-powered cars, and educating consumers about them to update their perceptions would also help, as most people do not know about biodiesel as a fuel source. Finally, using wind and solar power for electricity can reduce our dependence on oil. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">10. What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out? (Provide at least two supporting references.) <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">I was quite surprised at the fact that Henry Ford’s early cars ran on ethanol; I had already know that there were early electric cars, so I figured I would look into this more. I found a paper by Bill Kovarik that discusses early uses of alcohol as a fuel for vehicles. <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">Kovarik, Bill. “Henry Ford, Charles Kettering and the "Fuel of the Future"” 1998. [] <span style="font-family: 'Liberation Serif','serif';">I also found a site about early (late 18th-century and early 19th-century) electric cars. It has a quite nice timeline, as well as a list of companies. Looking at the list of companies, however, it’s evident that most of the companies stopped producing electric cars a few years after Prohibition started. It’s kind of weird seeing how everyone’s still trying to figure out how to make greener cars, when we already //had// a decent portion of the technology for it nearly a century ago. Granted, cars //have// gotten more complex since then, but the basic technology has been there for a while.

http://earlyelectric.com/