Not so stupid!

Tuesday, 24 February 2009 12:43

The world in year 2055, one man in left, looking back at a world that could have saved itself but didn’t. The Age of Stupid is the new movie from Director Franny Armstrong and producer John Battsek highlighting the pressing issue of climate change.

The 90-minute long film stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in global archive, houses the contents of every museum and has every digital broadcast ever made, located in the now melted Arctic in the devastated world of 2055. He looks back at “archive” footage from 2007, replaying news reports and interviews with experts of today and asks: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

The film is a mix of drama, documentary and animation and follows 7 stories Pete Postlethwaite in year 2055,  Fernand Pareau, 82-year old French mountain guide,  Jeh Wadia who is starting a low-cost airline in India, Alvin DuVernay a Shell oil man who rescued 100 people after Hurricane Katrina, Layefa Malemi, a woman living in Shell’s most profitable oil region in Nigeria, Jamila and Adnan Bayyoud, two Iraqi refugee kids trying to find their brother and Piers Guy, a windfarm developer fighting the anti windfarm lobby in England.

“The Age of Stupid” will be launched on March 15th in a solar cinema tent in the park in Leicester Square, and simultaneously at more than 60 other venues, across the UK. With a capacity of over 16,000, The Age of Stupid will feature in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ever film premiere. The film has already won the documentary world’s most prestigious prize: a Grierson. It was screened at the UN Climate Summit in Poznan in December 2008, as well as at the British, EU and Dutch parliaments. Upcoming screenings include the Welsh, Scottish and Swedish parliaments as well as at former UN secretary General Kofi Annan’s initiative Global Humanitarian Forum in June.

The £450,000 budget for the film was raised by the filmmaker’s innovative “crowd-funding” model. 228 ordinary people invested between £500 and £35,000 and giving them a percentage of the income, paid once a year for ten years.

The group behind the film is also launching a new campaign called “Not Stupid” with the aim to turn 250 million viewers of the film into climate activists and put pressure on decision makers to reach a climate agreement in Copenhagen. All profits from the premiere will go to the Not Stupid action campaign.

Watch the trailer:

The Age of Stupid: final trailer, Feb 2009 HD from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

Link to film: www.ageofstupid.net
Link to campaign: www.ageofstupid.net/notstupid