Film: The Age of Stupid

Listing details: The Age of Stupid film screening
When: 7pm Wed – Sat, Jan 30 through Feb 2
Where: The New Zealand Film Archive, 84 Taranaki St, Wellington
Ticket price: $8 public / $6 concession
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Age of Stupid
The Age of Stupid (2009) is a docudrama on the catastrophic effects of climate change. Set in 2055, Pete Postlethwaite’s archivist is the sole human survivor of a series of apocalyptic events set off by global warming. He looks back at video archives showing the mistakes of our generation that catalyzed these happenings.

As the Sydney Opera House is consumed by flames, the London Eye is submerged in a flooded Thames, and the French Alps become dry and barren, Postlethwaite’s archivist desperately implores: “Why didn't we stop climate change when we still had the chance?”

The independent film intertwines the archivist’s story with real footage from today. The story is intercut with news reports and interviews with people who are currently considered experts on climate change, as well as people who stand to be affected by it.

Interviewees include a Indian entrepreneur struggling to launch a new low cost airline, a Shell employee in New Orleans who rescued more than 100 people during Hurricane Katrina, an 82 year old French mountain guide watching his beloved glaciers melt, two Iraqi refugee children searching for their elder brother, a young woman living in desperate poverty in Nigeria’s richest oil area and a wind farm developer in Britain battling protesting locals who don't want his turbines to spoil their view.

“It follows the lives of six people [...] caught up in the politics of climate breakdown. Starring Pete Postlethwaite, it is a captivating and constantly surprising film: the first successful dramatisation of climate change to reach the big screen.” - The Guardian

“So tightly constructed and dynamic you leave the cinema energised rather than terrified... hits home like a hammer blow” - ABC Australia

The Age of Stupid was directed by award-winning filmmaker Franny Armstrong, who also directed Drowned Out (2002) and McLibel (2005).

The Age of Stupid will screen at the Film Archive from January 30th through February 2nd.

ENDS

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