Product Details

• Actors: Will Stutts, John Honeycutt, Jackie Marriott, Theo Wormley, Megan Douglas
• Directors: Jim McQuaid
• Format: NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: Turnip
• DVD Release Date: September 4, 2007
• Run Time: 26 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001709M7O
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #52,004 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

I've gotten a copy of Jim McQuaid's docudrama that we're going to be using in the "Amazn Artz @ Craven Community College" series. I'd like for you to see it. This is a film which the community needs to see -- environmental groups, parents, commuters, everyone. It's a mock newscast from the near future about how dwindling oil reserves may soon affect people on the local level. Somewhat scary film but relevant to us all. (I'm already spending around $70 a week on gas just to come to work - and that's at today's prices, not tomorrow's!) ... I want you to see this asap.

--Kerry Cox, Professor of Communications, Craven Community College, New Bern, North Carolina

Product Description

We interrupt the present to bring you the news from the future. After The Peak is a eye-opening look at the problems of a local community reacting to a sudden rise in oil prices and everything that depends on oil. It s a crisis we will all face, brought on by the end of cheap oil, by reaching the peak of production and beginning to cope with the gradual decline of worldwide oil supplies.

After The Peak answers the tough question of how to get audiences to feel some emotional traction when facing such an enormous global challenge. The answer is a film version of think global, act local.

Using the format of a local TV news broadcast, After The Peak is a docudrama that gives audiences an easy-to-understand glimpse of how we all will be affected by the end of cheap oil. Because it focusses totally on the local effects of this problem, the result is insight that makes sense to ordinary viewers. Insight that can be used to support the tough decisions and bitter consequences in our future.

The Earth is endowed with a generous but finite amount of oil. We ve been extracting it for more than 100 years, at an ever-increasing rate of production. One day we reach the point where production can t keep going up. It starts going down. We may already be at the peak.

Note: the DVD is actually region 0.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't wait until the after the peak... Watch this now!, June 29, 2008

By	D. Parker (North Carolina) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This film takes on an important subject: What will happen when we reach peak oil production? What will happen when gas reaches $10 a gallon? Most of us only think about the oil crisis as it relates to our gas tanks. This film looks at gas aspect, but it hits home in many other ways as well.

I really liked the way the filmmakers chose to use a small community as the backdrop for this film. I think most of us are so used to looking only at the national picture that we never think about how this issue can affect almost every aspect of our lives. This film forces you to consider the other hardships that will be a result of the end of cheap oil. No more fruit from Coast Rica, no more coffee from Colombia, and maybe even no more beef from Montana. We won't be able afford to ship these items to the thousands of grocery stores around the country (and the world for that matter).

And don't forget about the fact that oil is in countless different non-gas related products that we use. The end of cheap oil is going to force major changes on us all.

Oil production is about to peak. It's only down from here. What are you going to do about it?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Staging not convincing , May 5, 2008

By	Donal Fagan (Baltimore MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After the Peak attempts to be your local news broadcast at some time in the near future when it is clear that rising oil costs have seriously changed normal life in America. Although I am sympathetic to the message, I don't believe that this effort will provoke a serious reaction.

The initial sound quality is uneven, which was distracting. On-screen graphics aren't as good as you might see on local TV news. Guy Fox's immense hair made him a caricature. Worst of all, the studio sequences didn't feel like a TV news show. Local broadcasters would have a snappier cadence, more screen presence and would be more upbeat. This crew was almost somber and a bit preachy. Had they been written as mainstream newscasters slowly forced to report increasingly unsettling stories, the show might have been much more persuasive. There was a hint of that kind of revelation when Gail Sun interviewed Grocer Chris Morgan about possible food shortages.

The news team actors were much better doing their "taped" interviews and most of the characters being interviewed were convincing in their roles. Motorist 2 gesticulated more than I'd expect. Ahmed Hasani stumbled over his lines. School Superintendent Karl Peterson was very believable.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe not so "futuristic" after all, July 8, 2008

By	SensitiveNewAgeGuy (USA) - See all my reviews

A very clever piece. I believe it was created and produced well before the current $4-per-gallon climate, so the scenarios in the film don't seem at all hyperbolic. Of course the topic is somewhat somber, but I have to say, there was some subtle humor as well: the newscaster's overdone, overmoussed hair, for one thing, had me giggling more than once.

The worldwide oil situation is going to require some major lifestyle changes for all of us, to be sure.