Environmental documentaries thrive on their ability to question who stands to benefit — and who is left behind — in the rush toward a green future. That’s certainly true for the new climate feature, After Oil. In the project, filmmaker Boima Tucker explores the uneven realities of the global transition away from fossil fuels.
Moving between communities in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, the informal settlements of Nairobi and Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, After Oil examines how climate policy, extractive industries and neoliberal development continue to shape daily life across the Global South. Rather than presenting renewable energy as a simple solution, the movie challenges the idea that sustainability can exist without economic and political justice.
As a result, the documentary reveals how the same systems of exploitation that fueled the oil economy risk being replicated under the banner of clean energy. After Oil offers a timely and urgent meditation on climate inequality, displacement and the enduring legacy of extraction.
Tucker directed, produced and edited the film. Africa Is a Country, the leading digital platform for leftist political analysis of the African continent, produced the movie. After Oil The feature also marks Africa Is a Country’s first expansion into filmmaking. The documentary builds on a decade of work as a leading platform for leftist political analysis of the African continent.
After Oil utilizes vérité footage and a decolonial lens to confront a defining question: is the green energy transition truly just, or simply a rebranding of extractive logic? The film moves past policy abstractions to ground these debates in the lived experiences of the Amadiba in South Africa fighting against Shell, the residents of Mathare in Nairobi, and the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria. Ultimately, the movie unveils the contradictions of a transition where green too often just stands for the green in U.S. dollars.
After Oil will screen as part of the 32nd New York African Film Festival. The movie will have a special presentation at BAM Brooklyn Academy of Music on Sunday, May 24 at 9:15pm ET. To promote the documentary’s premiere, Tucker took the time to discuss helming the project during an exclusive interview.
Writer: Boima Tucker
Director: Boima Tucker
Producers: Grieve Chelwa, Sean Jacobs, William Shoki, Tsogo Kupa, Wangui Kimari, Raouf Meraga, Boima Tucker, Funland Studios / Allies & Co.
Production Co: Africa Is a Country
Release Date: U.S. premiere on May 24, 2026 at the 32nd New York African Film Festival
Genre: Political/environmental documentary
Language: Arabic, isiMpondo, isiXhosa, Spanish, Swahili and English with English subtitles
Runtime: 1hr 23min
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Here’s the trailer of the film.