Christopher Paine, director of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and the anticipated sequel “Revenge of the Electric Car,” spoke about the future of the electric vehicle at Portland State last Thursday.
Over 350 people filled the Lincoln Performance Hall, where Paine discussed the 26 reasons why “the world is plugging into electric cars.” As he went down the list, Paine outlined factors including air pollution and zeitgeist change.
Paine is aware of the social shift toward electric vehicles.
Just as he outlined the fall of the electric car in his first and most famous film, Paine tracks the evolution of an auto industry increasingly geared toward a cleaner future in “Revenge.”
On Thursday, Paine spoke about a shift in the paradigm of people, too, but emphasized that motivating people to change their behavior may be the hardest part in the electric car revolution.
“Changing from one technology to another is hard—horse to car, car to electric vehicle. It is hard to get people to shift,” Paine said.
He shared an anecdote about Henry Ford, who wasn’t instructed by customers to build a car, but to build a better horse.
Although Paine drives a $100,000 Tesla roadster, the most efficient (and fastest) electric vehicle on the market, he is in the business of directing and producing a different and more affordable type of green.
“It’s not for the money that comes out of it; it’s about creating the big shift,” said Paine.
His current three-year project may prove to be his most influential, as he follows the resurgence of the supply and demand for the electric vehicle through Nissan, General Motors and Tesla Motors.
“We’re going to take this [movement] for granted,” he said. “It’s happening. We’re going to present it like a race and have the media and audiences evaluate it accordingly.”
Paine is known as a key player in the electric vehicle movement, but he is also a filmmaker who described his poetic thrust during Thursday’s speech: as much as Paine’s work is about social change, he said he also desires to make films that are art.
“[You] definitely don’t want to make a message movie,” Paine said. “People bring in a set of values to a project, but the number-one responsibility is to create a campfire experience for the audience. If filmmakers tell good dramatic stories, the deeper value supports the message.”
Paine directed students interested in sustainability to his website, www.counterspill.org.
Currently, Paine is focusing on finishing his latest project, which he says will be finished in six weeks, and he is aiming for a release on Earth Day.
Among Thursday’s audience was Honda Insight driver Jim Pestilo, who drove from Washington to hear the lecture. Pestilo is retired and hopes that, before he dies, he can own a zero-emissions car. He, like Paine, sees a deeper value in the electric car movement.
“I don’t know anybody who bought a hybrid to save gas,” Pestilo said. “They bought it because it was the right thing to do.”
The lecture was sponsored by PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, the School of Fine and Performing Arts and Portland General Electric. ?