Don’t miss tonight’s Third Thursday screening of the Sundance Film Festival Best Documentary Audience Award winner, FUEL. An insightful portrait of America’s addiction to oil and an uplifting testament to the immediacy of new energy solutions, Director Josh Tickell and a surprising array of environmentalists, policy makers, and entertainment notables take us through America’s complicated, often ignominious energy past and illuminate a hopeful, achievable future, where decentralized, sustainable living is not only possible, it’s imperative.

FUEL screens at 7 p.m., at the Warren East Theatre (11611 E. 13th St.). Tickets for the screening are $9 general admission and $8 for students and seniors.

The film takes us on a whirlwind journey and tracks the rising domination of the petrochemical industry — from Rockefeller’s strategy to halt Ford’s first ethanol cars to Vice President Cheney’s petrochemical company sponsored energy legislation. FUEL includes appearances by notables and celebrities including Richard Branson, Sheryl Crow, Larry David, Larry Hagman, Woody Harrelson, Robert Kennedy Jr, Willie Nelson, Julia Roberts and Neil Young (who recently had a 1959 Lincoln Continental retrofitted to run as an electric vehicle right here in Wichita). Besides the Sundance award, the film has garnered numerous other awards at film festivals during the past year and has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.

A Q&A session with Tickell and producer Rebecca Harrell will follow the film. Directly after the Q&A, a panel discussion will take place, moderated by Toni Jackman, associate director of Wichita State University’s Center for Enviroment and Human Health and lecturer in the WSU Department of Geology. Members of the panel for this discussion include Ben Healy, president of Healy Biodiesel, a local alternative fuel producer and recycler; Kent Rowe, energy researcher, Peak Oil specialist, and toxicologist, U.S. Airforce; Roger Scholfield, president of Scholfield Honda; and Josh Tickell, Director of FUEL and author of “Biodiesel America.”

The Tallgrass Third Thursday screening of FUEL is sponsored by Warren Theatres, Healy Biodiesel, Scholfield Honda , Inn at Tallgrass, and The Alley.

Don’t miss the August’s Third Thursday screening: the 2009 Tallgrass Film Festival Audience Award winner THE WRECKING CREW, and September’s Third Thursday film TRACES OF THE TRADE.