Product Details

• Directors: Christophe Fauchere
• Producers: Joyce Johnson, Chris Fauchere
• Language: English
• Subtitles: French
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Studio: Tiroir A Films
• DVD Release Date: March 12, 2009
• Run Time: 68 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001VH7ACC
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,474 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This award-winning film explores our current ecological and economic crisis stemming from our dependence on cheap and abundant energy. Although our actions have lifted our civilization to new heights, it has come at a tremendous price.
We are now at a point where humanity's demands for natural resources far exceed the earth's capacity to sustain us. The extraction and the consumption of these resources in the past two centuries have changed our climate and ecosystems so significantly, that a new geological era had to be created.
For some decades now people have been talking about saving the planet, but we are realizing that this is not really the issue. The central issue is civilization itself and whether we can save it. The stresses that we have put on the earth are not only threatening our habitat, but our way of life, our prosperity and even our existence on the planet. Our current paradigm must change. We will have to accept the new reality; the human economy is part of nature and not the other way around. We are faced with great challenges. But unlike the rest of the living world, we have the unique ability to adapt and decide our fate and the fate of most of the biosphere, for better or worse, in order to survive the human project.
Selected at 14 film festivals around the world, The Great Squeeze features outstanding experts in many fields, such as economist Lester Brown founder of The Earth Policy Institute, Richard Heinberg world renowned Peak Oil expert, Edward O. Wilson legendary biologist, Alexandra Cousteau leading advocate for marine ecosystems, author Howard Kunstler, paleoclimatologist Jim White and many more.
The DVD has optional French subtitles. Spanish Subtitles are coming soon!
TEACHERS: This DVD version is for the general public only. If the DVD is to be used for classrooms or for public performances, please visit the film's website at

Reviews:

"The film provides a worthwhile summary of the key challenges and the links between them."
Carol Smith - United Nations University

"The value and cantor of this documentary cannot be understated.
Highly recommended ."
Michael J. Coffta, Business Librarian, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania

"Largely due to its impressive array of intellectual muscle, the film presents its points in a very balanced and scientific way ... Well worth a watch."
Kristin Sponsler - Energy Bulletin

"While many viewers would be fascinated with the scientific research of the film, I was fascinated with their psychology, that is, questions of how it is that humanity has arrived at this place in its history." (read more)
Carolyn Baker, Ph.D. - Speaking Truth to Power

"The better documentaries are expressions of some epiphany by the filmmaker - a Big Deal urgently needing to be conveyed to a larger audience. All too often that central idea is only half-glimpsed. The Great Squeeze comes to us wholly formed. The issues it presents are systemic and existential. They are core to our human self-concept. And yet, what the film is telling us is both unfamiliar and unwelcome. That all of this is carried through cinematically, leaving us still a glimmer of hope at the end, is profound. You will walk away changed."
Albert Bates - instructor in permaculture & natural building

"The Great Squeeze does an excellent job of summarizing our current world situation-better than any other film or book that I have seen."
Richard Grossman, MD - Population Matters

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must See, September 7, 2009

By	ProStaffer "ProStaffer" (Las Vegas) - See all my reviews

This video brings to the forefront many of the 'hidden' dimensions of our civilization as it relates to the use of fossil fuels. Our current lifestyles take so much for granted, especially the energy we have available to us, which seems in infinite supply. However, this video helps us take a step back and reexamine the source of all those things which we take for granted, and the impact on our Earth that our entitlements are having. Best of all, this video helps us look at our civilization in a totally new perspective, which is the essential first step in making wise decisions about our environment. The bottom line is this: our outlook as a species has shifted from us being a part of the natural world to the natural world being a part of us and our economy and our civilization. This video urges us to switch back and realize that human society is part of the environment, not the other way around.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, August 20, 2009

By	Rusty - See all my reviews

I hoped to find fresh new action ideas for reducing impact on the natural resources, plant and animal species and their habitats. The most important issue was not emphasized: Planet Earth's urgent need for humans to embrace 1-2-child families in preference to larger ones worldwide. Such a worthy behavior change would validate use of the immense U.S.public relations and promotional skills.