UK Climate Secretary Ed Miliband and Filmmaker Franny Armstrong
This is a review of the Age of Stupid movie and event on September 21st, a movie that was simulcast nation-wide in the U.S. and Canada from New York City. It’s also a commentary on the potential impact of this movie, which I think might be substantial.
The Age of Stupid, a title that comes from one of the characters in the movie, is a climate change documentary that had its official debut in the UK in March, and just now made it to the US. It’s a movie by UK film maker Franny Armstrong. First of all, it was the greenest movie premiere in history, with a recycled green carpet, to the solar powered tent, to musical amps and microphones powered by bicycle power, to locally grown canapes for the premiere itself.
The strength of the Age of Stupid movie itself is that it is character-driven and story-driven much more so than a movie like An Inconvenient Truth, which was mostly science as explained by the politician Al Gore, and pretty dry. With movies like this, the public support and education about climate change will grow. It really helps for people to see the dramatic shrinking of glaciers, for example, pointed out by an old French Alps hiking guide.
This movie was entertaining, humorous in spots, terrifying in spots, and a movie with a lot of humanity and human appeal. The average movie goer will probably recognize this as a documentary with a clear agenda, but even so the personal stories will draw them into the movie and help get the points across. The main point is that we are living lives that are unsustainable and that negatively impact poorer people in other countries — people we usually never see, but in this movie we see them. Their stories are all very different but they all add up to the same conclusion: we have to stop climate change or poverty will get worse, exploitation will increase, emissions will increase, wars for resources will keep happening, and it will impact and touch everyone’s lives. Climate change is not isolated. It’s everywhere and it’s happening now, it’s not a thing of the future. And it has a lot to do with environmental justice.
The “event” was live interviews, music, and talking about the movie both before and after the movie, since it was simulcast from New York.
As for the message of the movie, I was in complete agreement before I saw it, so I was impressed more from the stories that were told. (Actually, I had watched the ‘making of’ film online, and so many clips, that I had nearly seen half the movie before I actually saw it.) The movie didn’t suddenly drive me to act on climate change and become an activist, but a lot of people interviewed said that is what happened to them. That happened to me several years ago. I started reading some articles about climate change, real science articles, and it really scared me. So I was already on board. This movie would be wonderful to see, though, for people who know about climate change in general but not really how bad it is and how little time we have left. The Age of Stupid website is offering people the chance to screen the movie in your area, in fact, after October 24th.
The movie told the stories of several people — a guide in the Alps who watched the glaciers of his youth disappear. A woman from Nigeria, poor and living in a community without the promised (by Shell Oil) health care facility or clean water to drink. Superimposed over her landscape everywhere were Shell Oil drilling operations. The Iraqi family of a mother and 3 of her children living as refugees in Jordan, who fled because the Americans killed their father. They live on basically dollars a day, and wear their shoes until they fall apart, but were made fatherless because Americans depend on oil for their lifestyle. I remember the first President Bush saying that the American lifestyle was not up for negotiation, and thinking of that when I saw the poor woman in Nigeria hoping to afford college, the kids in Jordan walking around with dirty 2nd hand clothes. They were all in their situations because of the unwillingness of Americans to change their “lifestyle”.
Then there was the man in England trying to convince his wealthy and spoiled neighbors to tolerate less than a dozen windmills so they could power thousands of homes with renewable energy. They told him no, yet they supported the idea of doing “something” about global warming. But they weren’t willing to do anything about it themselves.
There was also the man from India who was just starting out his airline, Go Air, in India. He was so proud of his airline, but the timing could not be worse. Just when people will be having to cut their airline travel, India will be wanting to catch up in number of airlines with China, who wants to catch up with Europe, who isn’t yet approaching the number of jets that the U.S. has. and on and on. Everyone wants to catch up to the United States in economy, in progress, in consumption, etc., but as the movie pointed out, we will need several more earths for that to be possible.
In fact, if you are familiar with the online film The Story of Stuff, they did a miniature ’story of stuff’ within the movie. In summary: China uses a lot of resources and energy to make plastic stuff for people in Europe and the U.S., and then they use a lot of energy to ship them to us, and then our culture insists we buy all this stuff so we do, and then it breaks and then we throw it away and it ends up on a ship back to a landfill in China. It makes a complete circle and in the meantime all this energy and power is wasted, and for what?
The movie also focuses on a walking contradiction: a man who is en employee of Shell oil, living in New Orleans, and a victim of Hurricane Katrina. He works on oil rigs as a scientist and is also an environmentalist. A lot of contradictions there, but he understands, and yet his job gives him a unique perspective on oil. That perspective is that we are running out of it, and we use it for so many things. Drugs, pesticides, fertilizers, everything made out of plastic, even shoes and clothes, nearly all of our stuff is made of oil. It’s even in some food and things we put on our skin. We need it for so many things, why are we pouring it into our cars and burning it all up?
There were several running themes in the movie also. The first, sustainability is something we have to learn, lifestyles will have to change or we need to move off this planet and find a bigger one with more resources, because we are literally using up this one.
Two, we have run out of time. There is no further debate on the science, that part is settled, despite what a few people may think, but we now need to stop thinking this is about light bulbs and hemp clothing and unplugging the phone charger. Yes, driving and flying less is good. But we are beyond that. This is Go Time for contacting and pressuring our politicians to act aggressively on climate change, to come away from Copenhagen in December with something stronger than has ever been done before. We know the targets. We are well past individual actions. We are in a global emergency mode where only governments now can make what has to be done, happen. But yes, we can all pitch in, and will have to.
Another main theme was that bad climate results will definitely happen if we don’t act. The movie touched on many of the negative impacts of climate change: poverty, waste of resources, lack of water, war, hatred of those who wage war for resources. It was pointed out that when the Himalayan glaciers melt, that means a lack of water for at least a billion people. What will they do? They will have to move.
The movie didn’t focus a lot on science and didn’t interview scientists, but it did make mention of some science especially that relating to the year 2055. That is the year when much of life on earth may be on its way to extinction, including human beings, unless strong action is taken now. We therefore need an agreement in Copenhagen that includes a tapering off of emissions by 2050. This is a key component to any plan. We need to start tapering off emissions so that our emissions peak by 2015 and then start to fall quickly until 2050.
Emphasized in the movie was one resolute fact: we have run out of time! Either we do this now, or it won’t get done, because future generations will be too late to act.
That fact was also emphasized in the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” but it was done so dryly and by a politician. In this movie, it’s the message of all the very real and very human stars of the film.
Another emphasis was the fact that we have to pressure our politicians. That was emphasized over and over again, not just in the movie, but by those who talked about the movie afterward in NYC. This was an event that included an hour of talking to interesting people, some celebrities and politicians, after the actual movie. It was broadcast live from New York City and therefore there were some people in attendance at the premiere who were a surprise. One was the UN’s Rajendra Pachauri , and one was the UK’s Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and he was no doubt here for the UN climate week. Kofi Annan also spoke. I will have their remarks in my next podcast.
One great quote: “the concept of limitless economic growth is now dead” — Thom Yorke from Radiohead, who played a song after the movie. This is something they have to talk about at the G20 also — economic growth – so it’s probable that this will come up in every economic summit from now on. Our economies have to change. Super-Capitalism is ultimately unsustainable. We simply don’t have enough planets.
The Future of Movies?
This movie may be the best way to distribute and show movies in the future. There was very little carbon footprint to showing this movie. If all movies were powered by solar power, as this one was, and shown remotely, simulcast from one location, it would greatly cut down on the carbon footprint of distributing a movie. The entire premiere was “green”, from the carpet to the food served.
If I had any fault with the movie at all (and this is minor, because it wasn’t the purpose of the movie) it’s that it didn’t emphasize solutions to climate change beyond “cutting emissions” and “changing our lifestyles” and using every form of renewable energy we can. There were the obvious wind farms and solar arrays. They have, though, started a 10:10 campaign (reduce your emissions by 10% by 2010) the focuses on what people can do. Read about it here.
It’s unclear (to me) whether a country full of wind farms and solar arrays can be built fast enough and connected to a grid to provide every city and town with power, even with the addition of geothermal, solar thermal, and algae and battery driven cars, etc. Remember, we have to do this by 2015. That’s not much time. It will depend on political will, something in short supply in the United States right now.
All in all, this is an excellent movie that should be seen by everyone.
Here is a message from director Armstrong this morning:
The Huffington Post today
“One of the most important films of the year (perhaps decade)….. The Age of Stupid represents the future of film, film culture and film distribution and marketing. Filmmakers need to realize that getting your film in front of an audience is at least half of their job as filmmakers. The filmmakers behind The Age of Stupid get it. They get it to the nth degree and it is exciting. They are blazing a trail for filmmakers to not only release their films in their home countries, but around the world. We are on the verge of a new dawn, where fans support the films they want to see and where those films can create a worldwide theatrical release without studio support. You should go see this film not because I feel it is a great film[it is] but because you will be participating in the rebirth of film culture.” -
Photos: http://www.ageofstupid.net/photos
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ageofstupid
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ageofstupid
First reactions from the American cinema:
Tonight I, my husband, and my 10 year old daughter were part of the global screening of The Age of Stupid. What utter, simple, brilliant work. To be so suddenly and powerfully presented with the clear responsibility of my generation … words cannot possibly express what this does to one’s body, mind and spirit. Truly. I thank you all for your faith, brilliance, vision, humor, and love. Let’s do this together. – Karen H xoxox
Saw “The Age of Stupid” tonight. Blew my mind, I highly highly highly recommend you see it and then do something about climate change NOW!
Goodness, sadness, anger; such a range of emotion is difficult to evoke, and #AgeofStupid has done it! A movie, yes – a wake up call
Just back from seeing @ageofstupid. I will sell my car in a few weeks.
wow. at the screening of @ageofstupid and delightfully inspired
What a compelling film and interactive global event. We cannot rely on our corporate leaders for change. WE have to be those leaders, movers and shakers. The time is imminent, and I expect to see millions globally hitting the streets to demand change from the Copenhagen summit.
Watched the movie in florida tonight and it was purely an awakening! Thanks to all the people who worked on it! I am going to be spreading the word and be taking some action! We all can do something! We all NEED to do something!
What an incredible film!!! Just saw it in Los Angeles. I am so moved. Thank you for making this film! I want everyone to see it and make sure Copenhagen happens!!
Just got home from the premier of The Age of Stupid, in West Palm Beach, Florida….I have never seen such a moving screening. I believe that there is something we all can do. My friends and I do what we can to help the environment, more can be done …and we want to get people together to change things in our area. We want to get colleges together to screen this video. We too are college students and we don’t want to just leave this issue alone. Thank you
I just saw this in Austin! It’s a clear and present danger to us all!
Absolutely fantastic loved the funky homespun local rally feel – VERY HUMAN! watched in California
Had an awesome time at todays Green Carpet for Age of Stupid premiere in NYC. great film..must see!”
Summary: See and/or buy this important movie if you can. It’s not earth-shattering, but it tells important human stories of the impacts of climate change.
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