The Green Screen kicked off last Thursday in Cleere’s Pub with “A Crude Awakening”. There was a great turnout with many new faces.

As usual the evening was more than simply a film screening. We started off with a “speed date” exercise whereby each person was given a slip of paper with a one-liner explaining some aspect of the transition town movement. Each person was then asked to introduce themselves to a person they didn’t know and read out their one-liner to each other. Once finished, move on and find another partner. The game really breaks the ice and a good way to meet new people.

The film itself, although a bit sensational, is an excellent look at Peak Oil. Given the high oil spike early in the year and the subsequent shock to the world economy it was sobering to watch Colin Cambell predict in 2005 that peak oil could trigger the next great depression. The downside to the film is that it doesn’t bring in Climate Change or any other ecological issue.

After the screening Vered Zur facilitated a discussion posing three questions:

Q1-  What concerns did the film raise for you?

Q2 – What would you like to see happen in Kilkenny?

Q3 – What steps can you take to make this happen?

I have collected some of the comments here.

Next up is the excellent “Power of Community” on Wed 22nd. Its a much more positive film about how Cuba survived a kind of artificial peak oil after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the imposition of the US trade embargo.

You can download the full Green Screen program here.