“How much crude oil is in our food?” is the question raised by Michael Pollan (The Botany of Desire). His calculations show that the production of a hamburger uses the equivalent of a 20 km (12 miles) car drive. The oil is mainly used for producing fertilizer for the production of fodder, as well as for transportation and agricultural machinery.
Oil is the also the subject of Collapse, an “intellectual horror movie, which makes other political documentaries look like episodes of Teletubbies” (Variety). The protagonist is Michael Ruppert, a one-time drug squad officer and CIA agent, now a blogger. In 2006 he predicted the financial crisis in detail, now he is prophesising the collapse of our civilisation.
Whether you believe Ruppert or not, astonishingly you listen to him for 82 minutes. Director Chris Smith, who in 2004 presented his movie “The Yes Men” in the Panorama, gives a convincing performance with a strict form. Ruppert, sitting on a chair in a bunker-like room, chain-smokes and argues; “It is impossible for humanity to continue to consume and grow without limits on a limited planet. …When we run out of oil, everything will shut down, transportation systems, the food industry, police and prisons…”.
He spices up his apocalyptic visions with sarcasm. For the purpose of survival, it is not absolutely necessary to be the fastest. If a bear attacks a camping site you just have to be able to run faster than the slowest camper. Ruppert advises those who escape to grow their own food on clean soil.
Whether we want it or not, “Soil Not Oil” is the future.
In his film company dokumentar.no Lie has since 2008 been working as a film director, cinematographer and producer for documentaries. He works with the new Canon EOS 5D/7D with HD film, and edits in Apple's Final cut.
With Haiti mon Amour (Kjære Haiti, hva nå?) Lie went to Port-au-Prince after the earthqake with Ole Paus and others. We followed the money collected by the norwegian consert Dugnad for Haiti and NRK, and then given to Red Cross, Church Aid and UNICEF. It is edited as a low budget film essay, an montage of images. (se video below)
He has since 2007 worked on a documentary portrait – The Seduced Human – Jørgten Leth and Haiti on the danish renowned filmmaker Jørgen Leth (2011). This one-hour documentary is financed so far by the Norwegian Film Institute with 720 000 kroner – and will be released in 2011. (se video below)
Lie is also editor-in-chief for DOX, the leading European quarterly magazine for documentary films, published by the European Documentary Network. See PDFs of the last magaines below.
Lie has been the editor-in-chief and publisher for Morgenbladet between 1993-2003, and has been editor-in-chief/publisher of the Nordic edition of the monthly newspaper Le Monde diplomatique between 2003-08, where he now is still the publisher and regulary film critic.
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