"A Crude Awakening" is not a documentary for the weak.

The folks over at the Sundance Channel were kind enough to send AutoblogGreen a screening copy of the documentary, which will be broadcast tomorrow Tuesday night (9 p.m. EST) as part of the premiere episode of The Green (see related story here). Obviously, they want me to say it's a good movie so that you all tune in and watch. I'll gladly say it's a good doc, but that's simply because it is. It puts a lot of the things we talk about here on the site into perspective in a watchable, entertaining and educational and somewhat frightening 85 minutes (longer with commercials).

The film was released theatrically last year, but didn't make quite as big a splash as "An Inconvenient Truth" or "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Still, it should be included in the same breath of those films for providing a way to understand the role oil - and cars and human behavior - plays in our lives and on the environment. From the opening mood setters – foreboding music behind people saying oil is the blood of the devil, the blood of the earth and the lifeblood of the economy – to the film's final call to action – making calls to urge elected representatives to help us move past oil – "A Crude Awakening" watches oil flow around the globe, from Venezuela to McCamey, Texas to Russia and into our homes.

(review continues after the jump)

Sundance's The Green premieres Monday and the folks who have been working hard to bring A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash to your screens next week have slipped us three promos for the show. You can watch them edited together in the clip up above. They're about ethanol in Indy cars and biodiesel from waste cooking oil.

We also got a copy of the full first show to review, and we'll have our thoughts on the documentary on the final years of this non-renewable resource soon.

And, while digital distribution at least doesn't make for any paper waste, the entire promotion campaign is not as green as it might be, says Ecorazzi.

Related:

• Got a big idea for a short video? Submit it to Sundance for $10,000 and a Lexus lease
• Crude Awakening for Sundance Channel's new The Green documentary series

[Source: Sundance Channel]