Gashole Movie

[bennelson]

Hey folks,

Last night I went to a one-night-only showing of GASHOLE, a gasoline documentry touring the country right now.

Had a great time. I bicycled to a friends house, and then carpooled in her Toyota to the showing.

At the showing, I met several interesting people including a guy interested in converting his motorcycle to biodiesel, and a guy building an electric trike. Good thing I brought my motorcycle business cards!

The film itself talked a lot about oil company profits, patent squashing, OPEC and the other usual things you would expect. Pretty good film overall, but it certainly didn't have a WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR budget.

The film's interviews were shot on a high-def digital camcorder (which looked great) but often, the stock footage cut-aways felt either not quite the right thing to show, or didn't have the right timing.

After the show, two of the film-makers were there for a talk-back.
They literally ARE just driving from city to city promoting the film, which will be in wider release this fall.

Overall, the film is worth watching. Check out the tour schedule for when it is in your city and get a group to carpool/hypermile/public transit your way out to it.

http://www.gasholemovie.com/Home.html

[Daox]

Cool, you got to go. I got the email to go to the show at like 8 last night so I had no chance. It sounded very interesting though and thanks for the review.

[Shawn D.]

Originally Posted by bennelson

The film itself talked a lot about oil company profits...

Did they make any distinction between profit and profit margin? The two are not the same, and too many folks don't understand the difference.

Not to start an argument here (having not seen the movie), if it cannot be shown that the oil companies' profit margins have increased, one would be hard-pressed to say that the increase in profits is nefarious.

[NoCO2]

Sweet, it will be in my town on July 31st...marking the date on the calendar now!

::EDIT::
O dear, it appears it's at the LeFont theater in Atlanta...there are two...I wonder which one it's at? I sent them a message on myspace, so hopefully they'll get back to me. Either way, they're both only about 10 miles away from where I live, so I can take my bike there either way!

[bennelson]

Shawn,

yep, they talk about MARGINS.

There are some good clips from the senate hearings a while back when the government had the top seven oil execs in.

[brucey]

Isn't it silly they're convoying around using gas, promoting not using gas?

Or is their fleet biodiesel, etc? They'd have to have a massive tanker truck to go with them.

[igo]

preview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn2zqGmPqeQ

[jamesqf]

"The film itself talked a lot about oil company profits..."

Wonder why none of these people can come up with anything new? Seems like it's always the evil big oil companies and their profits. Now if they really wanted a conspiracy theory that'd fly, they should look at the amount of money US automakers have spent on convincing Americans that they really want to drive big SUVs.

[bennelson]

The movie also does point out the fact that manufacturers "only build what the public wants", and yet also heavily advertises those particular heavier vehicles, which causes the public to want them.

[Arminius]

Originally Posted by Shawn D.

Did they make any distinction between profit and profit margin? The two are not the same, and too many folks don't understand the difference.

Not to start an argument here (having not seen the movie), if it cannot be shown that the oil companies' profit margins have increased, one would be hard-pressed to say that the increase in profits is nefarious.

Margins should go up if the price of the commodity goes up. Right now, for example, the profits of companies that supply metals (copper, aluminum and steel) are going up because there is greater demand. If someone complains about oil companies making bigger profits, they are either ignorant or playing upon the ignorance of others. Where were these people 20 years ago when company after company was going broke? Was there a conspiracy then? People just want to believe that they are being ripped off.

If the price of modded cars, EV's or Geo Metros go up, is it because of a conspiracy? In the mindless thinking of the average consumer, it is. LOL! Why are used Hondas so freakin' expensive? Well, it must be "big-auto" Honda working behind the scenes, paying people off! LOL!

Yes, the ignorant are being preyed off of. Just who is doing that to them? Ironic.