Don't Forget: Sheffield Doc/Fest Tour at the Barbican Wed 7 March

The launch event marks the beginning of a three-month UK tour. The special event includes screenings of environmental doc A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash, followed by a Q+A with director Ray McCormack; Anna Bucchetti's Dreaming By Numbers and Jörg Wagner's Motodrome.

You will find it difficult to forget A Crude Awakening, nor should you. This gripping tale is a wake up call to the inconceivable changes facing the world as oil becomes ever more scarce. Directors Gelpke and McCormack show how our exploitation of oil has led not only to fabulous lifestyles our ancestors could never have imagined, but also ongoing political and economic instability worldwide. Oil production is now peaking, but the decline is likely to be very steep and very drastic, with no large-scale alternative fuel source in sight. “For a century we didn’t spend a nanosecond actually really taxing ourselves as to could we actually come up with a replacement for oil and natural gas,” admits Matt Simmons, oil baron and adviser to George Bush, one of many brutally frank experts interviewed. Beautifully photographed with a haunting score, A Crude Awakening grabs you by the throat in its first minutes and never lets you go. “A terrific work of investigative journalism-as-film that will scare the living crap out of you.” - Salon.com

The second film of the night is the poetic Dreaming By Numbers. Neapolitans supersticious belief in numbers and their power to influence the future can be seen as an attempt to take destiny in your own hands. Naples has many neighbourhoods with small ricevitorie (gambling offices) . The daily visitors don’t pick numbers ramdomly; for them there is a direct link between the chosen numbers and their attempt to change destiny.

For tickets call the Barbican Cinema on 020 7638 8891

Sheffield Doc/Fest launch event:
7:00PM - 10:30PM, £8.50 full £6.50 concessions Barbican Cinema - Silk St, London, EC2

For more details on the tour visit  http://www.sheffdocfest.com