Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Age of Stupid

After much anticipation, the movie 'The Age of Stupid' opened in Australia last week, and I went to see it yesterday.

Lots of you will know about it, and I know some have already seen it, but for those who don't know it is a 90-minute movie about climate change, set in the future (2055) starring Pete Postlethwaite as an archivist looking back at media footage from 1950-2015 and asking why we didn't do something about climate change when we had the chance.

check out the website for more info -- http://www.ageofstupid.net/


Here is the trailer --



The Age of Stupid Trailer Feb 2009 - SD from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.



I have been thinking about how to review it, and have decided I can't do it justice with my interpretation. But I can tell you I came out of the movies like a stunned mullet. I am pleased I went alone to see it, as I couldn't talk to anyone for a while. It thought it was really well-made, engaging, fascinating, shocking, terrifying .... and definitely thought-provoking.

There was more documentary footage than 'movie', which was great as all of the footage shown from 1950-2008 were genuine events, and the fictional component to the movie is based on projections from factual scientific data that is widely available now.

It delves into the effects of extreme weather conditions, peak oil and the big oil companies, consumerism, alternative energy and more, but presents it all a 'watchable' and very humanistic way, and some of the characters in the movie will stick in my mind for a long time.

I thought I was quite aware of what is happening around our earth, but this movie still managed to shock me. The way it was presented was like an alarming wake-up call at full blast.



If you possibly can, go and see it.



And then check out what you can do about it ---

http://www.notstupid.org/

4 comments:

Lee said...

The film was a shock to me too. I'm so glad I went to see it.

The big question is, where next? And how to convince politicians to stop fence sitting?

Sparkly Tiara said...

I only just heard about this movie on Triple J a few weeks ago and an planning to see it.

Daharja, I totally agree on how difficult it will be to get the pollies on side!

Can't wait to see it!

Lee said...

I have no idea how to encourage the pollies to get active, other than to make their lives so miserable with all our lobbying that that get active just to shut us up! :-D

mountainwildlife said...

It is a tough one, and partly the movie leaves a feeling of helplessness. I think the best outcome would come as a result of both big policy changes from government, and grass-roots changes such as the stuff we are doing. Top down and bottom up, I think is the phrase.

The website notstupid.org gives some ideas of actions you can take.

And don't underestimate the power of our BLOGS! Spreading the word this way is a great way to increase awareness- I have learnt loads and changed lots of ways since blogging.

Hope you get to see it ST- if not it is scheduled be out on DVD in UK Autumn, which is starting now, so hopefully here soon after.