Crude Awakening, A

aka: Oil Crash
Switzerland 2006, 85 minutes
Dir. Basil Gelpke, Ray McCormack
Rating: [Exempt]
Genres: Documentary

Topics: Eco-friendly, Educational Resource.

Aroview: Impending doom in the form of ‘peak oil’ is the subject of this bleak environmental documentary, designed to scare industry and consumers alike into immediate action.

What that ‘action’ is isn’t entirely clear, with dirs. Gelpke and McCormack offering plenty of shock treatment in their forecast of crippled global economies and the resulting social and ecological breakdown. With potential resolutions to the oil resource crisis never fully addressed, their film makes for a terrifying reality check, yet also an unconstructive one concerned more with abject scaremongering than genuine sustainability solutions.

NZ International Film Festival 2006