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Post a Question for Greg Reitman, producer of "Fuel"
For the Earth Day-themed April edition of the StoryLink eZine, we're featuring a Q&A with environmental advocate Greg Reitman, producer of Fuel, the 2008 winner for Best Documentary at Sundance. Wondering how you can get into the green scene? Greg will answer questions posed by the StoryLink community, so post your query today!
Fuel is a revelatory film that explores America's addiction to oil, from its historical origins to political constructs that support it, ultimately revealing alternatives and steps the country can take to make a change.
Reitman was recently named one of "10 Moviemakers Making a Difference" in MovieMaker magazine and is preparing to shoot at the UN for Earth Day as part of his upcoming film, Roots of Peace. He will be joined in our Q&A by Fuel director Josh Tickell and its screenwriter, Johnny O'Hara. Tickell's bestselling book, From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank, jumpstarted the US biodiesel movement, while O'Hara was nominated for a 2009 WGA documentary screenwriting award for Fuel.
Submit your question for Greg and the team behind Fuel by March 30. If your question is chosen, you'll win a one-year subscription to MovieMaker Magazine.
Post your Question now by Clicking on Reply.
What was the outline that you followed from start to finish to develope the documentary or did you and the team just add new scenes as you went along?
Carol L.
Was your motivation for the documentary FUEL based solely on your position as an environmental advocate, on John Tickell's book FROM THE FRYER TO THE FUEL TANK or another reason you pursued it to film, maybe personal?
Carol L.
I have completed a screenplay for an action feature set against the destruction of California's ancient Redwood Forest. It's about love and war in the treetops. While just about everyone in Hollywood professes to being an "environmentalist," much of the response I've received has been that films like this don't make money. Any advice would be appreciated.
Kevin Collins
Kevin@waroftheredwoods.com
What do you think about how the Obama administration is supporting biofuels and the new appointments to the Department of Agriculture? Is it business as usual or can we expect real change?
Congrats on your important film! My husband and I have written "PELTIER" based on falsely imprisoned Native American political prisoner, Leonard Peltier's book, "Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance". We're wondering how got your investors to feel confident investing in highly controversial material like FUEL?
Many thanks! Cathie Quigley-Soderman, Director-Writer,
Warrior Artists Productions http://www.warriorone.hypermart.net
Ditto to Kevin and Cathie's comments. My own story idea is a fantasy story reviewing our abuse of the land in the light of traditional spiritual values, drawing on pagan traditions with some reference to Christian ideas as well. Obviously controversial. My thought is that fictional art may be the best way to communicate these ideas, since documentaries may be dismissed out of hand before even being seen. Stories, on the other hand, may be watched despite up-front resistance, giving the author and the characters a chance to change the audience's minds by the end of the film. Just my bias.
Any thoughts on this?
I didn't mean to disparage documetnaries or your work, which is valuable and important.
I have a book ,published last year:
Paintings Of Travels To Bhutan
It is about my three years stay in Bhutan and my paintings,done there..
Would anyone be interested in making that into a screen play ,maybe combining another story to make it a movie..
Wondering how can one get into the green scene?
Duygu Kivanc
www.xlibris.com/PaintingsofTravelstoBhutan.html
I wrote a book titled: JAMES EARL RAY - THE LAST DAYS of INMATE # 65477 that was based on a daily journal I kept. I visited Ray in prison for one hour a day, 7 days a week during the last 6 months of his life.( 150 visits) CNN recently did a documentary about the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and included material from my book, without my permission I might add. Coretta Scott King filed a civil suit against Loyd Jowers, who testified that he was paid to arrange the assassination. The jury ruled in her favor and found that Jowers, as well as a former Memphis, Tenn police officer, a US military intelligence agent and several others conspired to and did assassinate Dr. King. James Earl Ray, was found to be not guilty by default after Jowers testified that he was set up to take the blame. His youngest brother Jerry Ray is in his 70's and I would like to film a documentary while he is alive and able to point out all the lies and inaccuracies that were told in other films, news reports, books and documentaries. Is there a book or DVD that would advise someone with no film making experience how to go about doing this?
I work with biogas, which is methane gas from organic waste. Since biogas has the highest btu's of any truly carbon-neutral energy, makes 2-5 times more fuel per acre than ethanol or biodiesel, has far less embodied energy, since it is the simplest form of energy to make and does not require refining, does not compete with food and Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen has determined ethanol uses more carbon than it makes and Sweden is using biogas to become the world's first oil-free country. The city of Linkoping, Sweden runs their entire city bus fleet with biogas.
I am always curious why its never included in books and films about alternatives. Al Gore didn't mention it in "An Inconvenient Truth" either. The book "Earth:The Sequel" dedicates 2 pages to it.
Annually renewable waste-to-energy is the only way to close the loop of true perpetual sustainability.
There are plenty of scholarships and competitions rewarding classic genres such as Drama and Comedy, are we likely to see more support for budding writers and filmmakers when it comes to Environmental Awareness issues?
Like 'buyer's remorse' do you ever have 'director's remorse' - i.e. do you ever think of things that you could have done better?
- Nitin Deo (Indian Story Writer based in California - author of a novel - Colors of Glory)
What are the differences in laying out the shooting schedule for documentaries versus feature films?
What challenges do you face shooting a documentary that feature film makers do not encounter and vice versa?
I attended an event on fuels of the future at the Peterson Auto Museum, and I was chatting with Dan Neil of the LA Times. We agreed that the true fuel of the future is electricity for most applications - some heavy duty applications may still require conventional power until battery costs and weight come waaaaay down.
Would you agree that until we get to a level where our energy is generated on a renewable basis, not based largely on agriculture (which still requires too much energy and too much arable land) or fossil fuels, we're going to remain economically and environmentally challenged?
And then, how do you go about raising funding for a controversial film like FUEL?
Thanks and congratulations on your great timing with this film.
What documentary films in general inspired you to pursue your path to make them as a way to create a dialogue among people? What are the top 3 environmental challenges that we face that aren't being addressed in your opinion that could benefit from this kind of discussion?
Dear Greg Reitman, I am writing a book about my part, in my little corner of the world, to green our earth during the recession. Our little community in the Pacific North West is encouraging growing your own healthy food in gardens and chickens in the backyard. This is our effort to sustain and improve the earth and to ride out this resession.
I have beautiful photos of my organic garden and of the whole community buying local produce. No carbon footprints. I would love it if I can include pictures of Mrs. M. OBarma and her helpers preparing her organic garden. Can you help me. Thank you Jane Ferguson
I think that it's probably easy for "mainstream" Hollywood to assume that documentary film makers are frustrated dreamers who are using documentaries as a way to breaking into feature films. Have you ever considered/tried to make a traditional box office feature film? If so, what would it be and who would it star?
So how do you go about gathering sources/permission for a documentary?
Do you put a random ad calling for subjects, or do you research people involved and then ask if they would be interested?
Also, do they sign a waiver/contract and do they get paid?
Mr. Reitman-
I am a fellow documentarian in the throes of research on my newest documentary. My previous film required very little finances while this new film seems to be a bit more "expensive". I have an outline, some footage shot, but no "experts" secured and no financing.
How best should I approach these "experts" on my film idea and explain to them I do not have the financing secured to start main production of the film; or should I attempt to secure financing before I approach them at all?
Thanks.
Benjamin Thornton
Roots of peace will be nourished by first establishing peace of mind and freedom from fear.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs defines what energizes, directs, and sustains human behavior; i.e., basic needs and physical security must be met first, before any higher level functions [like the concept of world peace] can successfully manifest.
With the rest of the world literally tunneled in underground for the long haul, often times in bomb shelters completely paid and provided by their governments, how can the citizens of the US also find this peace of mind, freedom from fear, and level of protection from the threats of a nuclear assault?
We currently are without protection from radiation, and can't discuss it without being labeled a survivalist. How should we address this shortfall of protection for US citizens, so a direct hit does not have to mean our total extinction nor our being wiped from the face of the map?
Hi, Greg,
I very much admire your filmmaking, and your subjects are ones I'm also interested in, since they combine entertainment with vital issues in a hip and well-received way.
How did you acquire the resources, funding and so on, for your films, which are essentially eco-oriented, and was it easier , or the reverse, to get this type of film off the ground ?
Also, in your film for Earth Day, was your previous film more difficult to organize or is this one - filming at the U.N. must be interesting at best.
Peace, or why we seem immune to it, is a great theme.
It's only by these monumental films that people seem to begin to take notice.
Thanks from all of us who care about the world.
Ocean
Factoring in the ever present human reluctance to change, what is the most motivationally attractive, yet expiditious and economically viable way to replace the already existing tens of millions of gasoline consuming vehicles with eco friendly methods of transport?
Greg,
I am a 36-year-old, disabled screenwriter from New Orleans. I want to know out of everything you have done in film and in life, what are you most proud of?
Question from Russia. The film gets to the heart of today's world struggle for resources, a world big politics. Could your film turn events in this drama to another final? And what role for yourselves do you see in this «world scenario»?
Roman,
Moscow