Fat of the Land

Florence Dore, Sarah Lewison, Steven Stahler in Person Note: Audience members bringing a jar of used vegetable oil receive discount admission (no bacon grease, please). Not sure how to reconcile your longing to roam our fair land with your auto's need for gasoline and the depletion of the ozone? Looking for a new summertime hobby? Wondering what to do with that leftover fry oil? Search no further, as the five waitress-garbed videomakers of Fat of the Land lead the way towards a new kind of road trip, one powered by kitchen grease, a sense of roadside humor, and a thoroughly home-grown version of eco-tourism. On a two-week journey from New York to San Francisco, these greasy riders find an America reliant on fossil fuel, but strikingly open to alternatives. From the corn-powered buses of Iowa to the Nebraska Soybean Program, their video energetically illustrates the benefits of eco-friendly fuels of the future. Conceptual art, activism, or one really cool science project, Fat of the Land is as entertaining as it is educational. A demonstration on how to make biodiesel will also be performed. (56 mins, Color, 3/4" Video) Preceded by: American Flash (Steven Stahler, U.S., 1980) a pixillated chronicle of UC Berkeley astronomer Stahler's journey from Ithaca to Oakland as seen from the hood of his car. (7 mins, Color, Super-8mm) Also, Dana Atchley's video postcard of an aptly named roadside spectacle cum gas station in southern Oregon, Bombergas, OR (1980, 1 min, Color, 1/2" video); and Postcards (1974, 6.5 mins, Color, 16mm), Andrew Lugg's real-time re-creation of actual postcards.-Lissa Gibbs

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