The End of Suburbia and Control Room  One of the benefits of being a Netflix member is the ability to find and view the many excellent documentaries that get only rare mass-market exposure. The End of Suburbia presents a view of American development patterns since World War II. The suburban developments in which many of us live are almost entirely based on the single-passenger automobile, natural gas and oil to heat the large homes, and fossil fuel-burning trucks to deliver goods from thousands of miles away. The end of this oil-based culture is in sight, mainly due to the fact that world oil production will soon peak, as predicted by Marion King Hubbert in 1956 (Hubbert's Peak). The movie describes how and why suburbia developed, why it won't work in the future, and a few ideas about where to go from here. There are no short term fixes.

Control Room, about the reporting of the current war against Iraq by the Al Jazeera satellite tv network, is basically supporting documentation for The End of Suburbia. Would we be in Iraq if we were not so dependent on foreign oil? The documentary depicts U.S. concerns about what the government considers to be biased reporting by the network. There are many clips of Rumsfeld talking about all the lies depicted by Al Jazeera, at one point stating that truth will eventually win out. I guess he was right; the lies told by the Bush administration are finally being exposed for what they were. Al Jazeera does present a one-sided look at the war, showing many of the images that U.S. reporters were not allowed to see or did not choose to report. Very enlightening.
posted by Bruce Wright at 10:51 AM #