There has been a spate of films on climate change and environment themes of late – I’ve mentioned Home already, there is also End of the Line, a film about the effect of overfishing which I’ve not seen yet… and there is The Age of Stupid that I saw a few weeks back at a local school, and that we are showing on 30th July in East Oxford…
The Age of Stupid is the new film from the director of McLibel, Franny Armstrong, and starring Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at actual footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?
“We could have saved ourselves, but we didn’t. It’s amazing. What state of mind were we in, to face extinction and simply shrug it off?… We wouldn’t be the first life form to make itself extinct. But what would be unique about us is that we did it knowingly. What does that say about us?”
The film uses a mix of news footage from the past few years, along with widely accepted scientific predictions, to paint a picture of the impact that climate change is having, and will have, upon the earth and humankind. Weaving in and out of this are the stories of a diverse group of real people from across the world – a wind farm developer, a business man starting the first cheap airline in India, a glacier climbing guide, a woman suffering the consequences of oil spills in Nigeria, a retired scientist who has spent his life searching for oil, and the demonstrators against a local wind-farm. The film presents these peoples lives so that you catch glimpses of some of the apparent contradictions, and attempts to try and not answer those contradictions too much, leaving the viewer to chew on them instead. This is a brave, helpful move… we’ve all got contradictions in our responses to such a complex issue… and the ‘holier than though’ approach only ends up alienating everyone from each other.
Despite being well made and of a high quality, I can’t tell you it is the best film ever made, it isn’t. But then given that it is a self-funded film with no corporate sponsorship, it is an amazing example of independent film making. It also means that it isn’t a Holywood blockbuster – and that is what makes this film so powerful. Using real news footage is not ‘Hollywood’ and looks ‘cheap’ in parts. And yet using real footage is probably the most convincing way of sharing this message… for sure its much harder to ignore or argue against actual footage and widely accepted scientific predictions. And the film uses this to its advantage.
It won’t leave you feeling warm and fuzzy inside – but then it isn’t intended to. It’s a wake up call to us all, that if we carry on as we are then all predictions say that we are heading for serious problems… and for that this is the best film I’ve seen.
The downside to this serious edge, however, is that despite the film being backed up by the Not Stupid campaign, if you leave the film without the chance to share with others, you’re likely to feel overwhelmed and of little hope… and we are then in danger of carrying on as usual… And so its important to see this film with others, and chew over its contents together.
So how can you see this film at it’s best (i.e. with others)?… Well, guess what? Perhaps the most revolutionary nature of this film, is that the creative guys behind it have developed a way that anyone can buy a license to show it anywhere… all completely legally and meaning you can keep the profits (incidentally as Yann Arthus Bertrand has waived his copyrights you may be able to do a similar thing with Home), and this Indie Screening marketing technique I suspect could really catch on…
Not wanting to miss out on a good thing we are putting on an Indie Screening at House244 in East Oxford on 30th July – booking details here – but why not go one better and put on your own screening – details how to here. Failing that you can obviously catch it where others are putting it on – details here – it will also be on at Greenbelt).
If you do put it on yourself I’d suggest resisting the temptation of having a speaker there to answer everyone’s questions, as in my experience these tend to end up veering towards a bear pit and lead to endless debates concerning whether ‘one should have an Aga or not’ (important for sure for some people, but it kind’a takes the energy out of things, in more ways than one)… rather I’d suggest spending time reflecting, leaving to one side all the questions for a moment, and asking yourselves “What is stopping you from doing something about climate change?”… and spending time breaking that down with others.
Perhaps inevitably after seeing the film I was left with the following words from the old hymn, City of God, in my mind:
Awake from your slumber! Arise from your sleep!
A new day is dawning for all those who weep.
The people in darkness have seen a great light.
The Lord of our longing has conquered the night.
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