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Film drills Big Oil lifeblood of car culture

'GasHole' to screen Tuesday in Louisville

By Marijke Rowland McClatchy Newspapers

MODESTO, Calif. -- What are two nice Republicans doing making a movie about the sordid state of the oil industry?

Actor Scott D. Roberts and his filmmaking partner, Jeremy Wagener are the unlikely men behind the new documentary GasHole. Narrated by The O.C. and American Beauty actor Peter Gallagher, the film chronicles the history of oil prices and alternative fuels.

It will screen for one night only at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Village 8 Theater in Louisville. This is its second stop in Louisville; a screening on July 14 sold out.

“Look, you’re not going to have to peel me off a tree anytime soon,” said Roberts, who splits his time between Los Angeles and the Central California town of Turlock. “I’m not a tree hugger, but we should all be able to drive what we drive and get 200 miles per gallon. I think after people see this movie, they will be shocked.”

The film, which Roberts and Wagener co-wrote, directed and produced, will had its world première in April in Turlock.

The Louisville screening is part of a nearly 50-city cross-country tour of the film. (There are no plans to screen the film in Lexington, according to the film’s Web site, www.gasholemovie.com.) A portion of the proceeds from screenings will go to charitable organizations — most associated with environmental causes — in the cities.

The idea started 21/2 years ago when gas prices were at a then-high of $2.20 and a letter to the editor in The Modesto Bee newspaper sparked Roberts’ interest.

The letter writer told of a Buick Roadmaster he saw come to the Crows Landing Naval Airfield in the 1940s that its inventor claimed was water-injected and could get 100 miles per gallon.

The inventor said he became a millionaire by selling the patent to Shell Oil Co., but one of the conditions was he could not make any more.

“His story was jaw-dropping,” Roberts said.

So Roberts called his friend Wagener, an L.A.-based writer-director, and said he might have a great idea for a movie. The two began researching it and tracked down Kunde, who tells his story in the film.

From there, the filmmakers went in search of the elusive patent sold to Shell. They found one from 1946 registered to a man who lived 20 miles outside Modesto; they thought it could be the invention in question. They brought the design to an engineer, who agreed that it might be able to improve fuel economy.

From there, the documentary took off.

“One door opened two doors, which became three doors,” Roberts said. “So that’s how it started, wondering what other patents were out there and why we didn’t know about them.”

Wagener said he and Roberts came at the project from a filmmaker’s perspective. It is the first documentary for both men, who met in 1999 while making Wagener’s directorial debut, Chicks, Man, in which Roberts acted.

“I thought (GasHole) sounded like a great story,” Wagener said. “Neither Scott nor I started out that socially motivated. Our intention wasn’t to fight the big business. We are storytellers and this seemed like a good story.”

Kunde’s story led them to find other documented cases of fuel-saving inventions that never have seen the light of day. They include Texas inventor Tom Ogle’s 100-mpg vapor fuel system and Shell’s own internal 1977 publication “Fuel Economy of the Gasoline Engine,” which shows that Shell engineers were able to achieve 149.95 mpg on a 1947 Studebaker.

“When we started the film, gas prices were around $2.50 and we thought, ‘Wow, gas prices are so expensive. This is really timely!’ “ Wagener said. “Little did we know ...”

They traveled across the country, filming in Washington, D.C., Texas, Arizona, Nebraska and California. They interviewed historians, engineers, scientists, inventors, alternative-fuel producers and consumers, legislators and government officials.

No representatives from the oil companies would comment on film.

The documentary is told through a combination of interviews, archival footage, congressional hearings, news reports and computer animation.