The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006)

The documentary, "The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil," was inspired when Faith Morgan and Pat Murphy took a trip to Cuba through Global Exchange in August, 2003. That year ... See full summary »

Director:

Faith Morgan

Writers:

Faith Morgan, Eugene 'Pat' Murphy,

Stars:

Bruce Cromer, Jorge Mario, Rachel Bruhnke

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Cromer	...	Narrator
Jorge Mario	...	Himself
Rachel Bruhnke	...	Herself
Eugene 'Pat' Murphy	...	Himself
Megan Quinn	...	Herself
Matthew Simmons	...	Himself
Richard Heinberg	...	Himself
Miguel Coyula	...	Himself
Roberto Perez	...	Himself
Rita Pereira	...	Herself
Miguel Salcines	...	Himself
Carmen Cabrera	...	Herself
Patricia Allison	...	Herself
Nelson Aguila	...	Himself
Nancy Gabrera	...	Herself

Storyline

The documentary, "The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil," was inspired when Faith Morgan and Pat Murphy took a trip to Cuba through Global Exchange in August, 2003. That year Pat had begun studying and speaking about worldwide peak oil production. In May Pat and Faith attended the second meeting of The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, a European group of oil geologists and scientists, which predicted that mankind was perilously close to having used up half of the world's oil resources. When they learned that Cuba underwent the loss of over half of its oil imports and survived, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990, the couple wanted to see for themselves how Cuba had done this. During their first trip to Cuba, in the summer of 2003, they traveled from Havana to Trinidad and through several other towns on their way back to Havana. They found what Cubans call "The Special Period" astounding and Cuban's responses very moving. Faith found herself wanting ...

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 May 2006 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Cuba

Company Credits

Production Co:

AlchemyHouse Productions Inc., Community Solution, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

53 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Follows The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream (2004)

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Soundtracks

"Chan Chan"
Written by Compay Segundo

User Reviews

A lesson in sustainability for backwards oil dependent countries.

This film is for you if you are already convinced of peak/oil and climate change and prefer practical solutions from real-life, large-scale examples.

This is simply the most inspiring film I have seen. It shows clearly how an oil dependent country can make the transition to life without oil. Cuba rediscovered living sustainably when the Soviet Union could no longer supply oil to it. Over three years Cubans lost a few pounds (most of them could afford to as the film points out!) as they couldn't transport food very far. Forced to grow organically (due to no petrochemical fertilisers) it took this three year period for their soil to recover from the hammering it had taken. But they emerged a resilient, self sufficient nation after this period of adjustment.

Cuba faced lack of oil early but is much the better for it. Every country will have to go through it someday and if the climate isn't going to get wrecked that day needs to be sooner rather than later. See this film, pass it on to your politician! This is a positive film and I found it utterly refreshing after the barrage of doom-laden messages about the state of the world today. It made me put extra time in to my allotment!