RECOMMENDED
Complacency is as much a force for bad as dependency, and James Jandak Wood’s concrete, informative “Crude Impact,” a documentary about how oil fuels the contemporary world economy, is a painful reminder. “Peak oil” is a phrase that’s just begun to dot coverage of the petrochemical-fueled planet we live on. Is Wood pessimistic? Negative? Frightened? Justifiably so. It’s not a subject of his film, but the fact that ethanol requires petroleum products to ship seeds, fertilize and harvest corn, as well as the finished fluid, is similar to the sorts of facts Wood arrays. You’ll start to ask yourself only a few minutes in, why are you not hearing about it from the media? From politicians? And why did ExxonMobil book record-breaking profits in the tens and hundreds of billions of dollars? Oh! That much money can buy an awful lot of silence. “Crude Impact” is a tiny, meaningful cry in the silence and should prove to be a useful tool for activists and organizers. 98m. (Ray Pride) FACETS Fri, Mon-Thu, 7, 9, Sat-Sun, 3, 5, 7, 9