{"id":4194,"date":"2009-02-17T22:58:04","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T04:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=4194"},"modified":"2009-02-17T22:58:04","modified_gmt":"2009-02-18T04:58:04","slug":"an-interview-with-josh-tickell-about-his-new-film-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/an-interview-with-josh-tickell-about-his-new-film-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interview with Josh Tickell About His New Film, Fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"
I asked Josh my favorite biofuel question at the time: If Willie Nelson can figure out how to run a car on vegetable oil, why can\u2019t Detroit? I\u2019d like to think we bonded a little over that. He had me test drive a diesel Volkswagen and told me that he had written some books and was going around the country in the Veggie Van, lecturing on the benefits of biofuels. He also said he was working on a film. I didn\u2019t think much of the film making bit. I live in L.A. Every one is working on a film about something. Still, Josh had a sincerity and contagious optimism about him that was distinctly antithetical to being just another L.A. film guy.<\/p>\n
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Some time went by and as some of us started reading and writing about the down side of corn and soy based biofuels<\/a>, I sometimes thought about Josh and his biofuels crusade. Granted, he was talking about biofuels from waste products and the negative reports were about biofuels from crops, but still, major media, environmental organizations and the blogosphere were becoming an echo chamber of \u201cbiofuels aren\u2019t the answer\u201d. And then the second generation biofuels<\/a> from algae, waste products and fast growing, low impact crops started showing up and suddenly the conventional wisdom was shifting again to \u201cbiofuels might really be the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n As it happens, Josh did make his film, Fuel<\/a>. And as it turns out, it is a beautiful documentary, which may seem a strange adjective to use for a film about petroleum and vegetable grease. However, it follows what turns out to be a deeply personal journey for the film maker, conveyed in a way that the viewer feels a part of it, because, in fact, we all are.<\/p>\n [youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/5YiDoWrgOLU&hl=en&fs=1]<\/p>\n Among other awards, the film won the Best Documentary Award at Sundance in 2008. Ironically, shortly thereafter, the mainstream media started reporting on the horrors of biofuels. In order to produce them, forest were being clear cut, people in the developing world were starving and food prices were rising.<\/p>\n Fuel is now out in limited theatrical release (California, Washington, Hawaii and New York) coinciding with a new understanding about the potential of second generation biofuels.<\/p>\n I caught up with Josh in between an appearance on Jay Leno and answering viewer questions at screenings of Fuel. And despite now being an award wining film maker, he remembered exactly when we met and standing around the Veggie Van talking.<\/p>\n