greg greene’s Recent Comments

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  Blame Canada

  that was the funniest damn thing i've read all day sharon.  brilliant!  you might want to add canada to your invasion list though, the natives up here are getting restless.

  greg greene writer | director The END of SUBURBIA ESCAPE From SUBURBIA EVOLUTION SUBURBIA (2010)

  On Target your peak oil message to your audience posted 1 year, 5 months ago 24 Responses

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  Peak Oil Porn

  Jaballo raises an interesting point about the green movement (at the same time as making vast generalizations that do him no credit).  Specifically, within the peak oil movement there are strong elements of misanthropy which i have observed time and time again.  i call it "peak oil porn" because all the twittering about how those SUV-driving suburbanites are gonna get what's coming to them is ultimately self-serving, with no other constructive purpose than to titillate the guy (usually the doomsters are guys) saying it.  this is a real problem, and the sooner we face this issue, and deal with it, the better.  

  what we need is humanity in dealing with our ecological problems, and that means taking the lumps that folks like Jaballo give us with humility, and listening to what they are saying (which means cutting through hyperbole and getting at the truth).

  cheers

  greg greene writer | director The END of SUBURBIA ESCAPE From SUBURBIA EVOLUTION SUBURBIA (2010)

  On New peak oil documentary fluffs the faithful posted 1 year, 6 months ago 29 Responses

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  the tough choices ahead

  One of the things that became abundantly clear as we were making ESCAPE is that the media is finally putting pen to paper around solutions.  Here in toronto all our three major dailies are tackling problems around sprawl, commuting, low carbon alternatives and lifestyle changes everyday.  We wanted to provide an emotional as-well as intellectual context for all this flood of information, which is why we focused on people's struggles as opposed to more old white guys in suits offering up scary statistics.  We did enough of that in our first doc, The END of SUBURBIA.

  Don't expect to be spoon-fed the solutions to the crisis in our films.  As citizens facing this uncertain future, what we need most is to be courageous and show leadership, at the same time as we listen to others and practice empathy.  These are personal qualities which will help empower our communities as we struggle to make the difficult choices ahead, and this is ultimately what ESCAPE articulates.

  thanks for all your support out there folks!

  greg greene writer | director The END of SUBURBIA ESCAPE From SUBURBIA EVOLUTION SUBURBIA (2010)

  On New peak oil documentary fluffs the faithful posted 1 year, 6 months ago 29 Responses

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  ESCAPE From SUBURBIA review misses the point

  David Roberts didn't get the fix he was looking for in ESCAPE From SUBURBIA.  He wants graphs and charts and "normal" suburban people - very little of which he found in our film.  He wants a film he can show to the "average joe" and have them walk away convinced, presumably, about the need to take action on peak oil.  That we clearly and unrepentantly did not give the david roberts of this world that kind of film seems lost to him, and rather than ask why we made the narrative choices we made, he takes the easy way out.  By this I mean he does not ask what ESCAPE From SUBURBIA is asking of its audiences, articulated in the Rumi quote which opens the film:
  Sit, be still, and listen...  

  Being "still" involves opening your mind and the documentary is designed to fill an open mind with not only intellectual concepts and social criticism, but empathy as-well.  Some of the characters in our film are definitely whacky (though no mention is made of the third character Kate-a "mainstream" single mom struggling to articulate solutions to peak oil and climate change).  The characters we chose to follow are the ones left out by both the mainstream media and the alternative media , and we wanted to give them a voice.  As we ask in our promotional material:  are these folks crackpots, or Cassandras?  Are they simply crazy people, or are they pioneering the DIY lifestyle changes that the mainstream will be forced to adopt as this crisis deepens?  

  The conclusion of ESCAPE has Guy Dauncey, the president of the BC Renewable Energy Association, articulate a vision of what sustainable suburbs might look like in the future.  But at the core of his massage is a passionate plea to all of us (and especially the skeptics) to find hope and build positive solutions.

  Finally, Mr. Roberts admits to enjoying our movie.  Well- DUH!!  Is it not about time that we can watch a movie about all these catastrophes and come away feeling lighter, with a greater sense of hope and determination?

  greg greene writer | director The END of SUBURBIA ESCAPE From SUBURBIA EVOLUTION SUBURBIA (2010)

  On New peak oil documentary fluffs the faithful posted 1 year, 6 months ago 29 Responses