Doomer documentary gets rave reviews at Toronto film fest

[pstarr]

Ah-I was not my intention to slag anyone on this board by what I said above. I just wanted to point out that for various reasons, the public cannot grasp what is "comin at em".

I think it is great that you have made a positive contribution to the future Pstar. I have made much more modest efforts via volunteering but I hope I can be of greater service to humanity in the future. I think they are going to need all the help they can get.

Sorry man. I was not talking you. I get 'ranty' sometimes and the pot-shots miss their target. I was referring to Mos and JD.

[mos6507]

It is not simply delivery by the wrong person. Jimmy Carter gave a famous peak oil speech. Few listened when there was time to act.

Carter is a good example because the critical details of his assessment were wrong. Sure, we should have moved off of oil 30 years ago, but not because we were already post-peak the way he implied. He did not pull out the kind of charts that Roscoe Bartlett does to explain Hubbert's curve. If he had, his predictions would have placed peak oil close to the year 2000. Then he'd have been left to justify moving off of oil due to the geopolitical issues of foreign oil dependency (think Carter Doctrine) and the latency required to do so, but not because global geological peak oil doom was imminent. (Think Hirsch report). He overplayed his hand, and was excoriated after oil prices tanked. It's totally a chicken little, boy who cried wolf, fool me once, fool me twice sort of thing. You must be very very careful when you make pronouncements and predictions.

[mos6507]

"If the 'doomers' were more effective, had a better argument, were smarter than the oil companies and Saudi Arabians etc., than everyone would understand the problems and we would fix them."

Your problem is that you see doomers as the white hats and everyone else as the black hats. And so you aren't allowing for self-criticism. I don't think anybody is above criticism. Considering that doomers are the ambassadors of doom to the general public, if they screw up, it sets everything back perhaps even more than if they kept their mouths shut. So I am not saying this to bash doomers. I am saying this because I don't want to see stuff like the recent spate of denialist editorials come out and so easily wipe away our gains in public awareness.

Having doomers make these bad calls is kind of like the way Reverend Wright or Farrakhan give the civil rights movement a bad name. I'm not going to embrace every doomer just because they are doomers. That is, IMHO, fanaticism.

[pstarr]

"If the 'doomers' were more effective, had a better argument, were smarter than the oil companies and Saudi Arabians etc., than everyone would understand the problems and we would fix them."

Your problem is that you see doomers as the white hats and everyone else as the black hats. And so you aren't allowing for self-criticism. I don't think anybody is above criticism. Considering that doomers are the ambassadors of doom to the general public, if they screw up, it sets everything back perhaps even more than if they kept their mouths shut. So I am not saying this to bash doomers. I am saying this because I don't want to see stuff like the recent spate of denialist editorials come out and so easily wipe away our gains in public awareness.

Having doomers make these bad calls is kind of like the way Reverend Wright or Farrakhan give the civil rights movement a bad name. I'm not going to embrace every doomer just because they are doomers. That is, IMHO, fanaticism.

Dude, you are talking sound bites specifically engineered by Republican hit squads . Reverend Wright and Farrakhn will be lost in the fog of history along with Simmons, Hirsch, you or me. We are at the True End of History.

In the short term I don't believe for one second that what I say here at PO makes a bit of difference anymore. That is why I mostly lurk and troll. Someone important may let the cat out of the hat, or a dedicated producer with deep pockerts might make a great document, or better yet, feature film that will reach the people. Until then all the impressive research and commentary (check out the oildrum for some really good work. Impressive peer-reviewed (New and different paradigm--wiki-style collaborative online schemas etc.)) has not made a bit of difference. Why? Because it is too late.

It is too late. Do your homework. Read Hirsch. Read the Oildrum. Read between the lines at IEA. We've peaked and we don't have 30 or twenty years for mitigation.

I never intended to portray doomers in white hats. There are many loco crazy ones here.

Isn't Business as Usual great. Can't wait to show it to my doomers friends. Wait. I don't have any. There aren't any anywhere around me. You are all I have

[mos6507]

That is why I mostly lurk and troll.

At least you're being honest.

It is too late. Do your homework. Read Hirsch. Read the Oildrum. Read between the lines at IEA. We've peaked and we don't have 30 or twenty years for mitigation.

Three words don't describe the range of outcomes still possible.

Isn't Business as Usual great. Can't wait to show it to my doomers friends. Wait. I don't have any. There aren't any anywhere around me. You are all I have

Maybe look up Derrick Jensen. I hear he's behind the Redwood Curtain as well.

[pstarr]

That is why I mostly lurk and troll.

At least you're being honest.

It is too late. Do your homework. Read Hirsch. Read the Oildrum. Read between the lines at IEA. We've peaked and we don't have 30 or twenty years for mitigation.

Three words don't describe the range of outcomes still possible.

Isn't Business as Usual great. Can't wait to show it to my doomers friends. Wait. I don't have any. There aren't any anywhere around me. You are all I have

Maybe look up Derrick Jensen. I hear he's behind the Redwood Curtain as well.

I met him a couple years ago. We walked through the Redwoods and talked about his life. Interesting guy. Teaches (taught?) writing to hardened violent criminals at a maximum security prison up here. Knows his business--our disenfranchised and dysfunctional society.

[Mesuge]

Dude, you are talking sound bites specifically engineered by Republican hit squads . Reverend Wright and Farrakhn will be lost in the fog of history along with Simmons, Hirsch, you or me. We are at the True End of History.

I do share your overall assessment of the situation. But I beg to differ on that one, perhaps in future generations terms like "Hirsch" and "Hubbert" will carry on some important message within the contemporary culture. I guess few years ago there was this novel linked in Energy Bulletin about post PO world, where the 2nd and 3rd generation of PO survivors were reffering to depleted stock (jam can) as "begin to hubbert" after it's half empty..
Something along these lines always happens after traumatic periods.

Hopefully, there won't be "mikehucakbee it" in the vocabulary for describing mushroom clouds and nuclear winter effects..

[rangerone314]

I'm still waiting for the day when the President comes on national TV on all channels at 8pm on a Monday, and explains with charts, graphs and a simple explanation what peak oil is and that we are now in the midst of it and that we have only a short amount of time until a drastic run up on the price of oil.

Then President explains what is needed as a solution.

I will be waiting a long time.

[jedrider]

1) US Debt Doom
2) Global Warming Doom
3) Peak Oil Doom
4) Population Overshoot Doom

That's a 'nice' list

Reminds me of:

The "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" is a term used to describe a concept from the New Testament of the Christian Bible, in chapter six of the Book of Revelation. Although scholars disagree as to what exactly each horseman represents, the four horsemen are often referred to as Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. They are part of an apocalyptic vision in which God summons and empowers them to wreck Divine havoc on the world. Each is revealed, individually, when the first four of seven seals are broken (opened) in Revelation.

Obviously, they are all important, although the first is merely a man-made method of accounting.

Debt-bomb = Conquest (financial conquest by the Chineese)
Peak-Oil = War (which is what it will bring)
Climate-Change = Famine (surely what it will bring as well)
Die-Off = That's an easy one (why Death)

Somehow, it is all a lot more digestible relating it to divine retribution rather than to the greed and short-sightedness of humans.

Most people won't believe doom until they're living it.

Yep. I have never convinced anyone. I've also discovered, most people are not even all that curious.

[mos6507]

I've also discovered, most people are not even all that curious.

Which is why I created this guy as a punchingbag.



It's therapeutic.

[pstarr]

I've also discovered, most people are not even all that curious.

Which is why I created this guy as a punchingbag.



It's therapeutic.

You do fine work. How many episodes are there?

[mos6507]

You do fine work. How many episodes are there?

Visit the channel page and look at the playlists. More than you can stand in one sitting. Maybe I should have submitted this to the Toronto film fest

If you're wondering why he's so upset, this is what sent him over the edge. Suffice to say, he's got a McMansion heated by oil This is where he got chewed out afterwards, and this is where he received further humiliation. Best to watch the scenes in playlist order without skipping around. It's hard to follow the plot otherwise.

[pstarr]

You do fine work. How many episodes are there?

Visit the channel page and look at the playlists. More than you can stand in one sitting. Maybe I should have submitted this to the Toronto film fest

If you're wondering why he's so upset, this is what sent him over the edge. Suffice to say, he's got a McMansion heated by oil This is where he got chewed out afterwards, and this is where he received further humiliation. Best to watch the scenes in playlist order without skipping around. It's hard to follow the plot otherwise.

I started at the beginning (being somewhat OCD myself) and enjoyed the interactions and quips. I love the way he responds to BAU with "That's tragic" and the way they gesture, especially how she rubs here stomach. Then a plot developed, and they went to Lost Wages, and I got confused and bored, and changed channels. How about the Jets' defense

[mos6507]

Then a plot developed, and they went to Lost Wages, and I got confused and bored, and changed channels. How about the Jets' defense

If you have a criticism, send a PM through youtube and I'll have my character include a personalized response to it during the intro to Episode 5. That's the way I wanted it to be. I wanted to have a kind of "dear abby" or "letters to the editor" thing going on between me and the viewers. Maybe even have polls to determine "who shot JR" and so on.

I was also thinking of putting up a "viewer's guide" to the show to try to help people know how to watch it without being confused. I'm really using the playlist feature as a poor-man's editor. And the annotate feature is a poor-man's CG titler. I'll eventually take this more seriously and do some real editing and post-production.

But to answer your critique, the first few clips stand on their own as vignettes, but it became really obvious early on that I can not do a show just about introducing doom to the office or it would run out of ideas in no time. I mean, how many times can you say ZOMBIE HORDES!!! There has to be some kind of larger plot structure. So it has become what it has become. Either you're going to get absorbed into this little VR universe or you're not. But it requires a strong commitment as a viewer.

[Pretorian]

If enough of these doomer films make it into the mainstream perhaps some of the sheeple will actually WAKE UP.

Whats the point??Sheeple will remain sheeple, poor or not, hungry or well-fed, rightless or entitled. I thought Uruinimgina had set a decent proof of that. I guess people have a short memory.

[mos6507]

I got this one from Sharon Astyk's facebook feed.

The guy from the Post who talks about "Obama Socialist" and points to a bike rider as an environmentalist (environmentalist as an epithet) is even more of a caricature than the CG stiffs in my show. I'm telling you. Truth is stranger than fiction.

[KevO]

Do some people think voyeurism of the mentally ill is a form of entertainment? Mental illness is no joke. It is not something decent people find amusing. We are all susceptible, as are our friends and family. The degree of suffering it can bring is real and profound. Much of it is not very treatable.

On the other hand, accusing those with uncommon points of view with being "crazy" just to discredit them, that is pretty low and desperate-IMHO. If you have rational, fact based rebuttals, make them. Smear tactics should be beneath all of us.

So you get Big Brother on your televisions too?

[lexicon]

When Technology Fails, Don't Panic

A Movie Review of Collapse

It was Friday the 13th, but I felt luck would be on my side. Everything was perfectly prepared for my viewing of Collapse at the Sunset 5 in West Hollywood at 7:30pm and the Q&A with Mike Ruppert after the show. Full tank of gas, list of questions written (just in case one or more were answered prior to my asking), microcassette recorder with a fresh battery to record the Q&A session and my copy of Ruppert's latest book, A Presidential Energy Policy, keeping my fingers crossed that I might get an autograph.

Yes, I knew what to expect as far as the content of the movie was concerned. Being a resident of L.A., common sense should have told me that my hopes to leave downtown at 5:45pm and reach West Hollywood so that I had enough time to eat dinner without wolfing it down would be dashed to hell. As I hit the onramp for the 101 North, the veritable tidal wave of red brake lights prompted an inner voice in my head to say, "This is Friday Night Gridlock. Be happy if you catch the opening credits". The irony was not lost on me that rush hour might prevent me from seeing a movie about how our overconsumption of finite resources through an economic infrastructure predicated on infinite growth would lead to a collapse of this paradigm. Reaching the Sunset 5 at 6:40pm, I had to wonder if Americans would one day be nostalgic for the days when it took 55 minutes to travel 8.38 miles.

Needless to say, I caught the opening credits and everything else. My high hopes were not disappointed: on an artistic level this is the best documentary on Peak Oil I've seen yet. Stylistically, what director Chris Smith has done is given this film, and by extension its subject matter, the sense of immediacy that it deserves. Title cards announcing what subject area would be focused on were in stark black and white. The score is one of the most evocative I've heard in any movie this year; mysterious and dark, moody and foreboding. What really sets this film apart from the rest is its editing. The first sustained cut to a completely black screen is jarring. My reactions jumped from, "Is this intentional-Did the projector malfunction-Did the electricity go out-Are we witnessing Collapse for real?" Experiencing this along with scenes where we see the cinematographer slate in front of the camera all help give this film the sense of "This is happening NOW. Pay attention! Collapse could occur at any moment".

As an adaptation of the book A Presidential Energy Policy, Smith does a marvelous job of keeping the nearly 90 minute interview focused within that framework. We get the explanation of Peak Oil (oil production follows a bell curve, peak is the halfway point where decline becomes permanent), geopolitical factors (Saudi offshore drilling, NEPDG), petroleum over-dependence (food production, pharmaceuticals), worthless alternatives (ethanol, clean coal), and worthwhile alternatives (localization). What keeps it from being an academic exercise is the personality of Michael Ruppert. In spite of the grim subject matter, there is an irrepressible spirit illuminating the map of this terrain. He can be very funny (the pregnant pause before the punchline that, "ethanol is......a joke" is almost professional comic timing), very passionate (the defense of his life's work being too important to "walk away" in spite of the adversity ranging from death threats to office sabotage is especially moving) and very straightforward (those who panic during the collapse, i.e. run to the hills, will probably be the first to perish).

Above all, he has a gift for taking complex subjects like economics and geopolitics and breaking them down into simple but vivid explanations that anyone can grasp. By the time he's done detailing the basics of fiat currency, fractional reserve banking and compound interest, you know in the moment before he says it that this system equates to a large scale pyramid scheme. But there is a clear emotional component that comes with this comprehension: anger. Probably the loudest positive reaction from the audience came when after detailing what the National Energy Policy Development Group headed by Dick Cheney in 2001 prior to September 11 went through to keep their records secret, including an ex parte duck-hunting trip with non-recused Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Ruppert hypothesizes exactly what an enraged American public would do to Cheney and company if the truth behind those records came out. Let's just say there was a 'throaty' approval from the viewing public at my screening.

My only quibble with the film is that I wish Smith had used more clips from Ruppert's lectures in 2005 to illustrate his veracity. There are clips shown from Denial Stops Here that highlight his economic predictions in a general manner. But there were far more specific predictions, such as the fall of General Motors, as well as how the economic collapse would be tied into oil prices peaking. As Ruppert put it in one lecture in my former hometown of Ashland, Oregon at the Rogue Valley Metaphysical Library, "I have seen a completely new term creep into the lexicon around Peak Oil and it just came out of the blue: it's called Demand Destruction. How do you destroy demand for oil? (listens to audience response) No. You collapse the economy. People who are out of work, unemployed and starving don't drive cars, they don't take vacations, they don't borrow money, they don't buy second cars, they don't fly on airplanes! Demand Destruction." Perhaps better selection of lecture clips might have helped avoid some confusion over whether Ruppert answered Smith's question, "What about human ingenuity?" Some critics felt he didn't answer that question. I felt the response was quite clear ("No amount of technology, no amount of human ingenuity can overturn the laws of physics and the laws of the universe."), but it's possible my understanding is enhanced within the context of Ruppert positing a so-called best-case techno-scenario to illustrate how human ingenuity cannot overcome how vast our over-reliance on fossil fuels for the variety of needs industrial society requires for growth: "So let's assume tomorrow that we had a whole new source of energy: cold fusion. Which would solve all the world's prob- well, it wouldn't solve the fertilizer problem, it wouldn't solve the pesticide problem, or the plastic problem..."

Bottom line: our infinite growth paradigm is not sustainable within our finite sphere. This is one of the book's most salient points and it is to Smith's credit that he allows Ruppert to drive that point home vividly in the movie. It is a scary point because of its revolutionary nature, but by the end of the film we understand that the end of the paradigm is not a death sentence for humanity. It is an opportunity for humanity to reevaluate what is truly important, what we value most deeply. The revolution we face is a revolution of thought, where we face a transformation that will affect every aspect of our lives. To drive that point home, Ruppert mentions that every major religion will have to address this and evolve if they are going to remain relevant to humanity. Which part of humanity survives the paradigm shift is dependent on how receptive we are to this civilization-altering switch. Ruppert analogizes this on a societal level to the sinking of the Titanic: there are those frozen with fear, those proactive enough to get lifeboats ready and those so deep in denial they go back to the bar for a drink. But Ruppert also analogizes this on a personal level with the story of the 100th Monkey: an island of monkeys were provided by scientists with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. One monkey discovers washing the potato removes the sandy taste. One by one, from friends to family, the washing is taught until by the time the 100th monkey learns, the washing behavior instantly spreads to all monkeys everywhere. By the end of the movie, whether you agree him or not, I don't see how you can't admire Ruppert for his tenacity, emotional openness and concern for humanity in his quest for his own 100th monkey.

The lights came up at the end of the credits. Nobody moved. Moments later, Michael Ruppert came down the aisle and stood in front of a microphone, greeted by rousing applause. During his 30 minute Q&A session, he was engaging, funny, receptive toward all questions positive and negative, and at the end I must commend him for doing a wonderful job of crowd control so that the next group could see their screening. He also had two pieces positive news: 1. His rent was paid through December, (the movie mentioned he was having trouble paying his rent) 2. The book would be re-released as Confronting Collapse and would be published by Chelsea Green Publishing hopefully in December. I was one of the first people to ask a question. Since one of the questions I wanted to ask had already been answered by him within the film, (Q: What should be done about the Federal Reserve? A: The Fed will go bankrupt.) I had this question prepared that I asked:

My question concerns two recent events: your economic warning last month of a run on the dollar and the senior IEA whistleblowers who told The Guardian the IEA has been fudging their numbers under US influence; that Peak is NOW not in the future. I'm wondering if you think there will be mainstream media confirmation of Peak Oil orchestrated to coincide with the dollar run to give the Financial Elite a pretext for profiting off our Great Depression again, or will Official Denial continue past the peak when the lights are going out as long as there is a publicly acceptable boogeyman or scapegoat?

This is where technology failed me. I had my microcassette recorder on record with a new battery, but perhaps since this piece of equipment is a relic from the Clinton administration, Ruppert's response sounds like it is recorded underwater. From memory, he didn't answer directly but addressed the question from the perspective of how the mainstream media has shifted their focus on the film from the message to the man. The mainstream media is trying to make it look like he is the only one out there spreading the message of Peak Oil when that just isn't the case. He mentioned those who supported him, Jenna Orkin and Stan Goff. He mentioned his correct prediction record as being at an .800 average. The point, I believe, is that Official Denial will continue even if the truth is spelled out in bold caps. So ignore the drinkers at the bar and find a lifeboat!

My overwhelming impression of the crowd that night was an atmosphere of positive connection. It was wonderful to reach out and share with complete strangers after the show. One of the more interesting crowd reactions was when in response to a question, Ruppert mentioned two politicians he considers his friends, Ron Paul and Cynthia McKinney. It seemed like half the crowd cheered when he said Ron Paul and the other half cheered when he said Cynthia McKinney, yet the good vibes made the crowd seem united in Green-Libertarian (Ruppertarian?) solidarity. When the Q&A session was over, I was fortunate enough to shake Mike Ruppert's hand and he was gracious enough to autograph my copy of A Presidential Energy Policy, now a "collector's item". I couldn't leave the theater completely, viewers were gathered outside sharing their thoughts and feelings. One of the viewers I met was someone who posts on Mike Ruppert's blog http://mikeruppert.blogspot.com/ as Oregon Survivor who traveled from Oregon to see this screening. It was invigorating sharing our thoughts, opinions and experiences. He and his wife are good people and I wish them both the best.

But as soon as I got to the parking garage, technology failed me again. Apparently I stayed parked beyond my validated time and owed $4.50. No biggie as far as L.A. rates go. The problem is that there was no security guard at the gate and the machine couldn't read my credit card. It took another 10 minutes to find a gate with a security guard who would accept cash. I turned out of the parking lot onto another sea of red brake lights on Sunset Boulevard. Checking my rearview mirror, I was startled to find my vision completely blocked by my unlocked trunk. The inner voice in my head, with reassuring familiarity, said, "Don't panic". I pulled out into the flat center median, stopped, put the emergency lights on, got out, shut the trunk and as I got back in the car, noticed my seat belt was wrapped around a lever near my feet that opens the trunk. Unwrapping the seat belt, I rolled my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.

http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2009/ ... panic.html

[shortonsense]

When Technology Fails, Don't Panic

A Movie Review of Collapse

Excellent story!!

Now I have to go see it for myself, Mike's idea's presented as "documentary" certainly means the only way to know for certain is to pony up the dough and check for myself. Wish I could see one where he hangs around to answer questions.

[bratticus]

CHRIS SMITH, COLLAPSE

... To me, the film was about who he is and how he ended up here and the effect that this process has had on his life. I personally wasn’t interested in making a movie about energy or sustainability or food or overpopulation or economics.

... I find Michael to be an incredibly entertaining person. His philosophy, the way he looks at the world, is more unique than anyone I’ve ever met. That was what we wanted to focus on, on him. We wanted to make a character study as opposed to an issue driven movie.