Wednesday night in the School of Arts building, 50 Bundaberg residents learned how Cuba survived and even flourished in the face of a food and energy crisis known as the country's "special period."

SustainaBundy, a local community group working for a sustainable Bundaberg, screened a documentary called "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil." The film illustrates how Cuba dealt with losing more than half its oil imports and 80% of its food imports with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990's. The country transitioned from large, fossil-fuel intensive farming to small, less energy-intensive organic farms and urban gardens, and from a highly industrial society to a more sustainable one.

SustainaBundy president Dean Hazelwood said, "Cuba's experience is a perfect case-study for what the rest of us face as world demand for oil rises and production declines."

"There's a lot we can learn from the film, and we want to get some of these systems put into place now, before they're forced on us," Mr Hazelwood said.

The turn out for the movie night was much better than expected. According to SustainaBundy vice president Andi Hazelwood, "the interest was so great for our first screening, with 30 people RSVPing, that we decided to put on a second screening later the same night - and another 20 people came along to that one!"

"The feedback was very good - a lot of people said they had no idea about peak oil before seeing the movie, and that Cuba's story was really inspiring," she said.

SustainaBundy will screen "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" again on Wednesday, 28th November at 5:30pm and 7:30pm in the School of Arts Building. For more information or to RSVP, visit sustainabundy.org or call 4196 0043.