The Great Escape

A Trailer for Escape from Suburbia, Greg Greenes’s sequel/follow-up to The End of Suburbia is now available via YouTube/Google Video/BitTorrent and here! (The trailer can also be downloaded from their website, but this is a dis-preferred option as it increases their bandwidth costs).

Escape from Suburbia is currently due for release in March 2007, you can put your name down to pre-order the DVD on the documentary’s website, they are also accepting voluntary donations to help fund the project.

The End of Suburbia (2004) quickly seemed to become a major consciousness raising tool for Peak Oil awareness, and is still worth seeing if you haven’t encountered yet. If that documentary was the ‘problem’ film, Escape from Suburbia promises to be the ‘solution’ film. Well the title promises that anyway, details of this film’s contents are sketchy right now – the trailer doesn’t give too much away (other than the fact they’ve been raiding Rick Prelinger’s stash at the Internet Archive again). Text on the website tells us:

“In ESCAPE From SUBURBIA director Greg Greene once again takes us “through the looking glass” on a journey of discovery – a sobering yet vital and ultimately positive exploration of what the second half of the Oil Age has in store for us.

Through personal stories and interviews we examine how declining world oil production has already begun to affect modern life in North America. Expert scientific opinion is balanced with “on the street” portraits from an emerging global movement of citizen’s groups who are confronting the challenges of Peak Oil in extraordinary ways.

The clock is ticking. ESCAPE From SUBURBIA asks the tough questions: Are we approaching Peak Oil now? What are the controversies surrounding our future energy options? Why are a growing number of specialists and citizens skeptical of these options? What are ordinary people across North America doing in their own communities to prepare for Peak Oil? And what will YOU do as energy prices skyrocket and the Oil Age draws to a close?”

That one line “What are ordinary people across North America doing in their own communities to prepare for Peak Oil?” seems to contain the best indication of a solution based approach. The general vibe I pick up however is that this film will relate to the previous one much as Richard Heinberg’s Powerdown related to his previous The Party’s Over. i.e. it will cover a lot of the same ground, be more up to date factually and have a greater degree of focus on solutions, without being a solution focussed work. Heinberg is again one of those featured in this film alongside: James Howard Kunstler; Amory Lovins; Jeremy Rifkin; Matthew Simmons; Representative Roscoe Bartlett; Dianne Leaf Christian; James Woolsey; Julian Darley; Richard Heinberg; Thomas Homer-Dixon; Faith Murphy; Guy Dauncey; Jeffrey Rubin; Pat Foody; Hon. Ed Schreyer; Hon. Michael Meacher; Hon. Yves Cochet; Mike Ruppert; and Colin Campbell.

The presence of Michael Meacher and Yves Cochet in that list provides some hope of a European angle on these issues – but really I still think the UK needs its own film looking at these issues from a more local perspective. Hopefully the UK Soil Association’s annual conference (January 26-27, 2007) which is focussing on ‘One Planet Agriculture - Preparing for a post-peak oil food and farming future’ will provide some more impetus towards communicating these issues to a UK audience through a UK lens. I shan’t be going to the conference, as it’s to bloody expensive!