Event

The Age of Stupid

Wednesday, December 9 at 7pm

$9 Members / $12 Public / Includes Reception
Active Membership Will Be Checked

Guest Speakers: Sarah Newkirk, Nature Conservancy;
and a representative from NYPIRG

âWhy didnât we stop climate change when we had the chance?â asks the main character of Franny Armstrongâs new film The Age of Stupid. Living in a world of climate catastrophe, this solitary character played by Oscar-nominee Pete Postlethwaite, serves as humanityâs moral hindsight from the year 2055. He scans video archives of events unfolding between 2004 and 2008, shocked that the world at that time knew it was flushing its future down the drain. Humankindâs stubborn refusal to act on climate compels him to dub contemporary times âthe age of stupid.â Shot in seven countries over a period of three years, the film features six documentary stories. The film was âcrowd fundedâ with the money raised by selling shares to 223 individuals and groups that range from a hockey team to a womenâs health center which allowed the filmmakers to have complete editorial control. Armstrongâs wide-ranging film pulls together a disparage collection of witnesses, including a robustly unrepentant oil executive in New Orleans, who is nonetheless shown becoming reflective after Katrina destroyed everything he owned. Armstrongâs next mission (her film McLibel documented the giant corporation McDonald which sued a group of protestors for claiming their food was unhealthy) is to show The Age of Stupid to 250 million people around the world through cinemas, DVDs, screenings at schools and community centers. Her ultimate aim is not just to get viewers to change their lifestyles, but to persuade them to lobby their leaders for stricter laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

UK, 2009, 92 min.