In person and virtual screenings available.
For special screenings followed by virtual conversations with Director Emma Davie, Producer Sonja Henrici, and film participants such as Executive Producer James Marriott, who are based in Great Britain, please contact Twin Seas Media.
Oil has been an invisible machine at the core of our economy and society. THE OIL MACHINE explores its uncertain future as activists and investors demand change. Is this the end of oil?
THE OIL MACHINE draws on the voices of young activists, oil company executives, economists and pension fund managers to explore the vital questions that affect all our lives. We have five to ten years to control our oil addiction, and yet the licensing of new oil fields such as the Cambo oil field off Shetland is seen to be in direct contradiction to the Government’s alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement and hosting of COP26. This documentary looks at how the drama of global climate action is playing out in the fight over North Sea oil. Oil companies are convinced that they can continue to keep drilling while keeping to Net Zero ambitions through adopting new technologies, such as Carbon Capture. But climate scientists are deeply skeptical of the Net Zero concept and the time it would take for these technologies to be effective.
The film reveals the hidden infrastructure of oil from the offshore rigs and the buried pipelines to its flow through the stock markets of London. As the North Sea industry struggles to meet the need to cut carbon emissions, oil workers see their livelihoods under threat, and investors seek to protect their assets. Meanwhile a younger generation of climate activists are catalysed by the signs of impending chaos, and the very real threat of global sea level rises. THE OIL MACHINE explores the complexities of transitioning away from oil and gas as a society and asks, how quickly can we do it?
81 minutes
SDH Captioned
Directed by Emma Davie
Produced by Sonja Henrici
Executive Producers: David Harron, Mark Thomas, James Marriott, Terry Macalister
Director of Photography: Julian Schwanitz
Editor: Martin Kayser Landwehr
Co-Editor: Emma Davie
Original Music by Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres
Re-Recording Mixer: John Cobban
A Sonja Henrici Creates Production
We offer two basic screening options: in-person or virtual. Book an in-person screening using the button below. For an online screening, fill out the virtual screening request form.
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COMMUNITY SCREENINGS (single events with license to charge admission) |
"We are indeed living within 'the oil machine,' not only through our use of oil and gas for fuels, but our increasing reliance on oil-based products...While THE OIL MACHINE delivers a hard punch over the status quo, it also makes clear that our present reliance on oil is an aberration...Clearly this cannot continue, and the only real choice is between making an alternative design or continuing on the present pathway of systemic collapse."
"A visceral and thought-provoking interrogation into how this insidious machine might be dismantled."
Steve Taylor-Bryant, The DreamCage
"While protestors take ever more extreme actions and the government blithely ignores its own climate advisors to issue more drilling licenses, it's well worth reviewing the story of how we got here. THE OIL MACHINE tells that story, of why we need to just stop oil, and why it's proving so hard to do."
"Thanks to its sheer pertinence, THE OIL MACHINE is essential viewing for everyone from young students to governmental policymakers...It's mesmerizing in its delivery, making you rigid with worry and then alert with proactivity...Emma Davie's film is a call for drastic action regarding climate change."
"A well-thought-out, thought-provoking film on a pressing subject in our time."
Gordon Wallace, Joyzine
"The experts in the film are powerful people we like to respect; bankers, lawyers, and even representatives from the oil companies themselves. I find their words unsettling. Apparently, oil has become such an intricate part of our daily lives that we can no longer imagine how we could possibly get out of it, and yet, we are heading for a grand disaster if we don't rethink our strategy."
Margareta Hruza, Modern Times Review
"Excellent...An urgent watch."
Upcoming On Screen
"In perhaps the most clever twist, investment bankers, BP representatives, and even the CEO of Oil and Gas UK are offered a sort of 'right of reply', an act which makes their patronizing waffle and corporate double-speak painfully transparent...Rather than focus on the well-known consequences of inaction, director Emma Davie takes a keener approach with THE OIL MACHINE, asking who and what is standing in the way of necessary action."
Alasdair MacRae, UK Film Review
"THE OIL MACHINE tackles a massive and pressing issue through various perspectives and really paints the whole picture."
Abundant Art
"Right from the start its clear the film's mission is to explore the multitude of ways in which oil has seeped into our everyday lives, to such an extent that many of us longer even see it."
Jonathan Atkinson, Carbon Co-op
"Powerful documentary - essential viewing."
Brian Ferguson, The Scotsman
"A beautiful piece of work, hypnotic and mesmerizing and incredibly emotional - I learned so much from watching this."
Janice Forsyth, BBC Radio Scotland
"The sheer depth of explanation - from the role played by financial markets, to the real efficacy of certain techniques like carbon capture, to who really owns North Sea oil...made for a calm, informative, eye-opening experience."
David Pollock, The Courier