AFI Dallas International Film Festival - ‘Fields of Fuel’

(USA, 2008, 93 mins)

Directed By: Josh Tickler

Josh Tickell, an expert young activist, shuttles us on a revelatory, whirlwind journey to unravel America's dependency on petroleum—from its historical origins and the political constructs that support it to available alternatives and the steps we can take to change things.

Tickell tracks the domination of the petrochemical industry—Rockefeller’s strategy to halt ethanol use in Ford’s first cars, the mysterious death of Rudolph Diesel at the height of his biodiesel engine’s popularization, our government’s choice to declare war after 9/11 rather than wean the country from fossil fuel. Never minimizing the complexities of ending oil dependence, Tickell uncovers a hope-filled reality pointing toward a decentralized, sustainable energy infrastructure—like big rigs tanking up on biofuel at Carl’s Corner Texas truck stop, a new Brooklyn biodiesel plant serving three states, a miraculous Arizona algae-based fuel farm, and the Swedish public voting to be petroleum free by 2020.

Information from the AFI website