Makers: M. G. MacPherson, Jean D. Michelson
Original format: 35mm silent film 1.33:1
Production: Artkino
Camera, editing: Jean D. Michelson
New music: Eric Beheim

Utilizing a monologue, "Oil" narrates its rise to power in this amateur film produced in Los Angeles. The images, mostly held in heroic, high-angle shots against an open sky, are strongly influenced by Soviet aesthetics. Ultimately the film is a paean to technology and the speed of modern transportation. -Jan-Christopher Horak

Unrelated to the U.S. distributor of Soviet films, Artkino was the name chosen by two amateur movie enthusiasts, Jean D. Michelson and M.G. McPherson, from Burbank, California. In the late 1920s and early 1930s they completed several fiction shorts, which they shot in 35mm, including "War Under the Sea" (1929), "The Trap" (1930), and "Oil" (1930-33). -Jan-
Christopher Horak