Saturday, July 22, 2006

Summer Movies '06 part 4

There is something special about a city like Seattle that has a sophisticated and mature film-loving population. Even better, theaters exist here to host small-run or independent or documentary films -- and I love 'em.

"Who Killed the Electric Car?": This movie is a fantastic documentary that really feels like a PBS special for the first hour or so. It traces the history of electric-powered automobiles and how they were shoved out of the marketplace in the 1930s by the internal combustion engine and cheap oil but later made a resurgence in the 1990s when California decreed that a certain percentage of cars sold in the state by each manufaturer must be emissions-neutral. Then, as the cars gained popularity, the companies fought the law and stopped producing the cars. Took them all back, in fact! The last half hour is pretty judgmental about who did, in fact, kill the electric car -- and while the blame could easily be placed at the feet of the automobile manufacturers and the oil companies, it also gets placed elsewhere (hint: the Bush Administration had a lot to do with it). My rating is to see this movie on DVD because it probably won't play very far outside the art houses of a green-friendly city like Seattle.

Bonus for energy watchers: The Huffington Post has a new song from Paul Hipp about global warming. Check it out.

Also, a video with Will Ferrell as the president on global warming. Funny.

-- Seattle

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