On Saturday I had the honor of attending the NYC premiere of Fuel – a film that examines how we treat energy in America and our growing addiction to foreign oil.

In the film, director Josh Tickell travels the country in his “Veggie Van,” interviewing politicians, historians, professors and a few well-known celebrity activists about subjects ranging from biofuels to wind power and solar.

Hailed by film festivals across the world, including a Best Documentary Audience Award at Sundance, this movie should be an absolute must-see on everyone’s list.

After the screening I was part of a panel to discuss green issues and got a first hand look at how passionate movie-goers felt about this film. In fact, one audience member declared that Fuel was the best movie he had ever seen. Wow!

To find out why I will be preaching the good news of Fuel for years to come, visit TheFuelFilm.com. And don’t forget to check out the trailer below!

With last year’s Go Green Expo in New York City a huge success, organizers decided to turn their eyes towards Los Angeles and give the west coast a chance to bask in a greener glow of products, companies, and special guest speakers. The fruits of their labor will be on display this weekend as the 2009 Go Green Expo opens from January 23-25 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Over 250 booths featuring eco-minded exhibitors will be on hand — as well as great discussions and talks from people like Mariel Hemingway, Ed Begley Jr., Peter Fonda, New York Times Bestselling Authors Julie Edelman and Bryan Au, Josh Dorfman and others. There will also be a special screening of the Sundance Award winning movie FUEL along with a provocative discussion with the movies’ director Josh Tickell and some of the Expo attending celebrities.

“We are elated to have so many speakers, panels, nonprofit organization and businesses under one roof to share sustainability best practices and help educate the public,” says Bradford Rand, President and CEO of Go Green Expo. “What seems to be a great reflection of the growing green economy even in these tough economic times, we are pleased to see the LA show booth space is entirely sold out.”

Interested in attending? Check out the official web for more information!

The New York City-based Go Green Expo had its Big Apple debut this past weekend at the Hilton New York. The green weekend kicked off with an inaugural awards gala which included a runway fashion show featuring eco-wear by Maggie Norris, a former designer for Ralph Lauren. Host Nigel Barker of America ’s Next Top Model auctioned several couture pieces – topping at $7,000 – benefiting Riverkeeper’s Amazon Conservation Association. Award recipients included Congressman Steve Israel, Captain Planet Foundation’s Laura Turner Seydel, Live Earth Founder Kevin Wall and NYT best-selling author David Bach for their individual contributions to the green movement this year. Celebs in attendance included the always-stunning actress Sissy Spacek, model Lauren Bush, Playboy model Lindsey Vuolo and TV personality Pat Mitchell.

The weekend continued with a three-floor, green-living and sustainability event including vendor booths, panels and film screenings. Goodies ranged from bamboo-clothing by Carole Wang to green printers, ride-share companies, bags, jewelry, cosmetics, to organic foods and beverages like Sobe. Many of the products featured boasted free-trade production.

One of the most notable extra-curriculars was the Fields of Fuel, film screening chronicling Josh Tickell’s U.S. road-trip in a “Veggie-Van” fueled by vegetable oil from fast-food eateries. He also breaks down green energy and major myths and misconceptions. Who knew (aside from Josh) that Rudolf Diesel, who created the first diesel engine, had designed it to run on vegetable oil, not petroleum?! To call this film eye-opening would be a great understatement. Despite its current grass-roots marketing effort I would confidently put all bets on this powerful, film as a shoe-in for the next Best Documentary Oscar. “Fields of Fuel” already won the Audience Choice Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The inspirational Josh Tickell took park in Q&A with expo-goers and has been working on this film for almost 10 years and has loved inspiring others. Check out a clip of the movie here or visit the official site at http://www.fieldsoffuel.com/.

For pictures from the fashion show and the gala, please click more below to view Ecorazzi’s gallery!

Current Energy presented a $10,000 check for the “Current Energy Earth Friendly Award” to filmmaker Josh Tickell for his film Fields of Fuel at the AFI DALLAS International Film Festival awards brunch on Sunday, April 6.  The awards presentation was held at the W Hotel in Victory Park.  From left to right, Josh Stern and Joseph L. Harberg, Current Energy principal partners;  Liener Temerlin, AFI DALLAS International Film Festival founder and chairman;  filmmaker Josh Tickell;  Ross Perot, Jr.; actor Ron Livingston.

It was only two years ago that Al Gore premiered a little-known film called An Inconvenient Truth at Sundance 2006. Since then, the festival has experienced an increase in eco-themed documentaries and movies; not to mention environmental awareness in handling everything from programs to merchandise to transportation.

This year’s entries include such topics as America’s dependency on fossil fuels to the precarious future of water resources to, well, the end of the world.

First up is Field of Fuels — a film about U.S. dependency on fossil fuels and the potential of biodiesel to replace gasoline. Proving their point, the cast and crew traveled from Venice, CA to Sundance in a biodiesel caravan. Director Josh Tickell’s film was even selected to open up the festival at Robert Redford’s preserve this past Wednesday. He’s hopeful for a 200-1000 screen release in theaters during the election campaign in ‘08. You can check out their ‘Sundance Blog’ over on the official Fuels site. (Thanks to Earth Pledge, the film is also carbon-neutral. Interestingly enough, Oscar-Best-Picture runner There Will Be Blood also voluntarily offset their production through EP.)

Next up is FLOW: For Love of Water which documents the intense relationship between people and water, and examines the growing rate of depletion of the most precious of natural resources. From the official site,

“Armed with a thirst for survival, people around the world are fighting for their birthright; unless we instigate change, we face a world in which only those that can pay for their water will survive. FLOW: For Love of Water, is a catalyst for people everywhere: the time has come to turn the tide and we can’t wait any longer.”

On the fictional front, we have Half-Life. While some might be quick to think this is a movie version of the video game, it’s vastly different. Here’s the quick summary: “Set in the idyllic hills of northern California, Jennifer Phang’s marvelously original first feature, Half-Life, is a supernormal tale about self-absorbed and disillusioned suburbanites who live in a futuristic time of natural disasters, suffocating air quality, and accelerating global cataclysms.”

Sounds deep — but Sundance isn’t about thin films with little-to-no brain activity. Should be cool to see how these all fair against the traditional indies — but at the end of the day, we’re just happy to see more attention being paid to these topics. Look for most of these to be available to the public sometime this year.