The Age of Stupid

From the director of McLibel, Franny Armstrong, The Age of Stupid stars Pete Postlewaithe as an old man living in the devastated, fried world of 2055.  From his base in the Arctic Circle, he pieces together old archived footage of news clips and interviews from 2008 to discover what went wrong and why we didn’t put a stop to climate change while we had the chance.  After seeing these stills from the movie I am curious to see the visual effects that a hybrid animation/drama/documentary subsumes.  The apocalyptic images such as the Opera House in Sydney and the Taj Mahal in India are certainly morbid and shocking to say the least, and raise expectations for some visually stunning, sci-fi-esque artwork along the way.  

The solar-powered premiere took place in March this year in a tent at London’s Leceister Square with, as you can imagine, a green carpet and guests arriving on bike or foot.  The event produced a rumoured 1% of your average film premiere’s carbon footprint, quite an impressive feat!  What’s even more impressive is the film has been screened in UK Pariament, the EU, Scottish, Welsh, Swedish and Dutch parliaments, as well as the UN’s climate summit, Obama’s think tank and the World Bank.  And all this from a crowd-funded film with a crew working for survival wages!

The Age of Stupid is especially resonant with the up-and-coming COP15 in December - the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, in which the world’s environment ministers and global leaders will meet to negotiate the new rules for climate change.  Some are saying that it is the most important deal in human history, and the only serious opportunity to prevent climate change increasing.  It is ready acknowledged that 300 million people are at serious risk as a result of climate change.  Armstrong is no doubt succeeding with her film, employing shock tactics to portray the seriousness of the issue.  She quotes “Independent feature documents are currently the number one way to save the world”.  Let’s hope she’s right.

Visit www.ageofstupid.net/screenings/upcoming for film screenings, in locations across the UK including LUU’s Peanut Gallery on 29^th September.  With quotes such as it “knocks spots off the inconvenient truth” from The Economist and “every single person in the country should be forcibly made to watch this film” from Ken Livingstone, I am personally fascinated to see the source of all the hype for myself.  Film review to follow shortly!