Eleven years in the making, FUEL is the in-depth personal journey of filmmaker and eco-evangelist Josh Tickell, who takes us on a hip, fast-paced road trip into America’s dependence on foreign oil.
Combining a history lesson of the US auto and petroleum industries and interviews with a wide range of policy makers, educators, and activists such as Woody Harrelson, Sheryl Crow, Neil Young and Willie Nelson.
Animated by powerful graphics, FUEL looks into our future offering hope via a wide-range of renewable energy and bio-fuels. Winner of the Sundance Audience Award.
The events of Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina factor in both visually and thematically, providing provocative anchors for the movie’s indictment of what Tickell believes is the Big Oil-cozy, ecologically indifferent Bush administration.
Johnny O’Hara’s WGA Award-nominated script doesn’t dwell on muckraking, however; it’s more focused on broadly inspiring viewers than preaching to the converted.
Interviews with a wide range of environmentalists, policy makers and educators, along with such “green” celebrities as Woody Harrelson, Sheryl Crow and Larry Hagman offer serious fuel for thought – as well as for action.
Smartly animated interstitials, memorable archival material and a lively soundtrack round out the fast-paced proceedings.
February 15, 2011 at 5:13 am | Andre Bordeleau
We all know it, and now is the time to do something about it! this movie really brings home the point and shows not only what alot of folks have been saying and trying to do for a while now , yet we keep beliving the media when big oil pays them just like the good ol boys club on the hill.
this is really about our survival and not about revolution ( beside an energy revolution) and yes WE can do something TODAY for tomorow will be …to late.
thanks for your hard work and dedication Josh Tickell!
February 16, 2011 at 2:09 am | bernie
unfortunately, biofuels will increase food prices skyhigh and fresh water consumption even more. The solution is to take a fucking bike, and stop living like we do.
February 16, 2011 at 3:48 am | Hightower
Algae are biofuels as well so what you’re saying is not quite right..
February 16, 2011 at 10:38 am | bernie
us oil consumption per day is 20M barrels (just for vehicles). To match that quantity (which is extracted, it ‘gushes’ out) with algae (a slower, organic process which you would ‘scoop’ out) imagine the number and size of the tanks, tubes, machines etc… Not saying it can’t be done, it’s just we’ve grown accustomed to such a fancy way of living, we should pull back a bit.
But I don’t see it coming the way things are going, unless something hits us in the face really hard.
February 17, 2011 at 6:54 pm | Hightower
I just saw this yesterday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3HNrAGWoAI&fmt=37&hd=1&autoplay=1
It seems that something important is about to happen in the field of energy!
February 17, 2011 at 6:17 pm | John
I was hoping for a video about solutions rather than another political and a “blame the oil companies” type of documentary. Biodiesel? Really? That’s the solution? Let’s drive up food prices even more and put more stress on our shrinking arable land to produce oil to burn in an engine. Does that make sense to anyone else? Instead of using these 200 acres to feed people, I’m going to use those soybeans (or corn in the case of ethanol) and burn it in a car to make a trip to the supermarket to buy food which is more expensive because there is less of it because part of it is being turned into biofuel.
If this film was indeed eleven years in the making, I would expect a better solution to be put forward than biofuels.
February 20, 2011 at 12:57 pm | Your mum
Guess you didnt watch the whole movie, all of that is covered.
Algae, Solar, Wind etc.
If they took the same amount of money that they put into the Iraq war and instead invested that into manufacturing wind turbines, the US would already have more energy than from all the oil they are stealing from Iraq.
May 22, 2011 at 1:23 am | Menacing.
clearly you didn’t watch the entire doc. at the end and throughout the show he mention’s varius ways to create and sustain a clean energy world one of the more interesting ones were the development of algae as a fuel, so try not to be so negative in your comments how nout instead of trying to knock this fella for try to start change, figure out a way yuo can help come up with some ideas to make biofuels a better choice farming options and such things aight. have a god one….dick.
May 22, 2011 at 1:24 am | Menacing
dam shoulda spell checked.
June 17, 2011 at 6:24 am | Kongkakingchongcha
Actually, he gave us a little preview of his bio fuel concept and how it is possible to turn it into practice. That’s a context for a solution.
You may have some bias before watching this video.
February 22, 2011 at 8:13 pm | Theresa
Cut down on conspiracy documentaries & treat yourself with some brain fuel.
These people are innovators who make thinking about the future bearable, or better,exciting.Well done.
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April 30, 2011 at 6:10 pm | Backlinks
This is great, I love how there doing this.
May 22, 2011 at 2:09 am | Guest
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June 15, 2011 at 8:00 am | Brad
WTF is wrong with people???
Hydrogen is THE most abundant element in the Universe … Internal Combustion engines will run on Hydrogen, the only thing that needs to be changed is the fuel delivery system. We NEED to change from a fossil fuel based economy to a Hydrogen based economy, the only thing that is holding us back is the big oil Corporations. Mind you, it won’t be a an “overnight” thing, but all good things need some sort of sacrifice.
June 19, 2011 at 10:49 pm | Sebastien Astoul
Fantastic doc! Everybody should watch it
July 31, 2011 at 11:39 pm | Bob
Great
initiatives, but is seems like more attention should be paid to driving down the
growing demand. These people seem to see the demand of fuel as an inevitably growing unit and
therefore want to increase the supply. It seems like there is too little initiative
to drive down the demand. The world’s population is currently in a state of exponential growth and we have to accept that this cannot continue infinitely. I think it
should not just be China to have a strict form of natural birth control. In my opinion all the
major contributors to the world’s growing population should take measures to
control the population growth before nature does it for them (war, starvation,
pandemics etc.). Although this seems extremely difficult to achieve I think it
should, just as a cleaner and more reliable fuel supply, be brought to people’s attention.
August 18, 2011 at 4:58 pm | Brian Bissell
Amazing documentary….shows both sides pretty well and goes in depth to many alternatives. Overall a very pragmatic and intelligible piece, I highly recommend it.
@5b718b578a362879bac2131fdb894980:disqus , I agree, our infinite growth paradigm has caused many of the problems, as people of course will become wasteful and reckless if they believe oil never ends. Population control should be a absolute last resort…as enforcing it would be a nightmare and starts to infringe on personal freedom. I hope we can sort things out before it comes to that level….
January 15, 2012 at 5:39 pm | loverofdocs
Good Documentarie, although I feel it should go into more detail about the different types of solar panels and wind turbins. Just because it is a soalr panel does not mean it is eco friendly. Educate yourself on the different types just like they show here with different types of boidiesel.
February 19, 2012 at 1:06 pm | Jackmeoff
good stuff, but poorly put together (directed), actually, it was very corny. you should’ve hired an experienced narrator.
April 17, 2012 at 7:41 am | Don't Watch something with a predetermined bias!
Many comments here say that biofuel can’t be the solution, but lets be honest its got great potential to slowly move our fuel sources from petrochemical to ecological sources. We have the technology now and it can be used to pave the way for future technologies, perhaps 50 years in the future we can forget about biofuels, when hydrogen (it may be the most abundant element in the universe but we don’t have ways to harvest it from outside of our own planet. The current systems for creating hydrogen as a fuel source are difficult and can’t be easily implemented) or other sources can be used.
I’m not going to speculate about what could be, however we should look at what we can do now or within the next 10 years to create a sustainable future.
The documentary was quite good, showing ways we can convert our waste (which in many ways is worse then emission pollution) into energy, convert our deserts into fields of fuel producing algae or other ecological energy producers. As well as many other potential solutions to our over indulgent lifestyles.
I’m sick of reading ignorant responses from people who watch 10 minutes of a documentary and comment based on their own personal bias.
May 14, 2012 at 7:48 am | J. Fox
Why are americans such idiots?
Why does everything need to be spoon-fed to the population as preachy brainwash like this.
Bio-diesel is just another short term solution, a selfish one at that. Why the fuck shouldn’t we buy most of the worlds grain supplies to feed our engines? Global hunger, water crisis? Fuck that shit, this is my hummer bitch and I’ll drive it.
Why are americans such idiots.