Electric Cars open Planet in Focus film fest

For anyone who’s not familiar, Planet in Focus is Canada’s largest environmental film festival, and takes place October 12-16 at a variety of Toronto venues.  In addition to showing films, PIF hosts industry panels on environmental filmmaking and sustainability, as well as the “Green Screen” workshop that helps filmmakers learn about the latest and greatest in green production practices.

The festival started off with a “vrrrooom” last night featuring the Canadian premiere of Revenge of the Electric Car, narrated by Tim Robbins.  A sequel to Who Killed the Electric Car? this film follows the development of electric cars by GM, Tesla Motors and Nissan, as well as independent operators like Greg “Gadget” Abbott.
Director Chris Paine was given behind-the-scenes access to all of these organizations and tracks the progress of each car from inception through launch.  Interviews with key players at each company – Bob Lutz at GM, Elon Musk at Tesla, Carlos Ghosn at Nissan and “Gadget” himself – help humanize the organizations and provide insight into the challenges that must be overcoming as part of this major transformation.
Perspectives from respected industry experts and journalists, as well as the occasional celebrity (Danny Devito makes several appearances!) provides context (and some humour, not surprisingly).  And given the important role that WWF sees for electric vehicles, it was great to hear so many people describe them as inevitable and essential.
Revenge of the Electric Car opens on October 14 at AMC theatres.  We highly recommend that you check it out, along with the other PIF films showing over the next few days, some of which are free!