Watch and wonder: How stupid are we?

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Edith Johnson,  Contributor ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 11/22/2009 4:22 PM  |  Screen

After the new screening of The Age of Stupid, an indie film by means of a novel go,shift toward to environmental documentary, a number of of the audience lingered for a number of climate alter chit-chat, pondering the pros and cons of doomsday messaging.

Chicken Little meets appreciative inquiry - whom be hypothetical to we rear at this historic moment?

Green Radio, Greenpeace and additional co-hosts managed to draw concerning 120 filmgoers to an English-language film by means of Indonesian subtitles so as to deserves far similar to distribution here. The 30-odd diehards who stayed following the end now cheered up at what time co-host Green Radio gave absent the door prize, a bicycle intended and shaped at this time in Indonesia. The winner was merely a bit appreciative - how to get it house on his motorbike?

If you sit downward by means of a Greenpeace activist, a communal scientist and a handful of populace lively in climate alter issues, you'll discover the tenor of the conversation to be desperate optimism. What's the correct way to engage populace by means of the house of climate alter post-Kyoto, post-Inconvenient Truth, and now barely pre-Copenhagen?

But primary the film.

Director Franny Armstrong extra us a creative montage of animation, straight-up documentary and sci-fi film traditions to tell a urgent tale in genuine conditions we can all understand. Pete Postlethwaite theater the previous man on earth, recording his final testimonial in the archive of all person achievement, anywhere 100 on foot north of Norway in the post-apocalyptic future. (Which is not so futuristic known worldwide futurists contain by now set up the Seed Bank in Spitsbergen.)

The four documentaries interwoven from side to side the film offset the dark oblivion of The End, focusing on four genuine populace responsibility genuine belongings to brawl the climate alter dilemma humans contain created. Windmill makers, mountain guides, subsistence farmers are all livelihood inside the new "climate code".

The scene stealer is 82-year-old mountain inhabitant Fernand Pareau, who us on an awe-inspiring climb eager on a recently bare glacier in the Alps. If a image is value a thousand words, after that his backyard tells us so as to this earth is not concerning us.

Piers Guy's tale is concerning his neighbors, incredibly narrow-minded although seemingly clever Britons, who believe windmills are ugly and refuse to let him fling up a few in completely tasty small bend of Cornwall. It recreation the practical surface - so as to genuine events get put in town council and zoning meetings in restricted communities, not in Oxfam offices. We appreciate the far above the ground barriers to accepting the new climate code in normal places.

The high-quality animation and belongings in the film, its futuristic, creative angle for presenting information clip following information clip, weaving a tale jointly the way we all surf as,at the same occasion as existence - it's all bright sufficient to create us understand so as to Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth is now a nerdy dressed up slide demonstrate (sorry, Al).

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That high-quality and new account moderator as of the new manufacture mechanism. The film was crowd-financed by means of communal networking behavior (thanks, Barack), by means of everybody who contributes receiving a split in the film (psst - pitch in at ).

If the new broken are leaving to create a difference, after that this film's communication is its way of pending eager on existence form and can provide us genuine hope so as to broken and mail can cut from side to side complaisance.

Just one more utterance on technique. Anyone admiring the twisted genius of Terry Gilliam, still if you labor for Exxon, determination adore this film. The filmmakers let animation director Jonathan Hodgson romp crossways the monitor by means of multitudes of particulars and figures in cardboard cutouts. Special kudos for representing the level of the issue and the armed forces at engage in recreation by means of "lo's o' li'l bits".

So here's the debate: do we converse concerning climate alter and get everybody busy by talking concerning the possibilities, concerning come again? can be? Show me a movie concerning how climate alter got abridged and we stay our hotness at concerning 2 degrees Celsius additional supposed pre-industrial levels. Show me populace livelihood with no oil in big groups, not the isolated Manhattanite script a book or wind-farm equipment pretending to be now one more usual family in the Cotswolds.

Or do we say, "not enough, not almost enough" and create by means of no trouble a number of ruckus because, despite all the talk, the on fire series as,at the same time as millions of Asians are now start to get the possibility to say, "I desire to get me a number of of so as to power age lifestyle, thank you extremely much. Just provide India a pair of existence of pleasure and after that we'll twist open-minded too."

The Age of Stupid determination be screened on one occasion more in Indonesia on Dec. 4. Details determination be announced at

Quotes as of *The Age of Stupid'

The Archivist (Pete Postlethwaite):"We might contain saved ourselves, but we didn't. It's amazing. What condition of brain now we in, to face extinction and just shrug it off?"

Alvin DuVernay (Shell paleontologist and hero of Hurricane Katrina): "In my view our use or misuse of capital the previous 100 existence or so, I'd probably rename so as to age, amazing similar to The Age of Ignorance, The Age of Stupid."

Fernand Pareau (French mountain guide): "When you're in the mountains you're roped together. The danger is the similar for you as it is for me."

Piers Guy (UK wind-farm developer): "How the heck are we meant to influence populace in India and China to expand in a additional sustainable way at what time we're not still ready to believe the odd wind-farm in the landscape?"

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