See The Age of Stupid and help to save the planet
by Fiona Montgomery, Info and Devt Officer
It’s not often that we get the chance to help change the
world from a cinema seat… But in March - and potentially
for the rest of the year - watching The Age of Stupid could
give us all that exciting, campaigning opportunity.
The ‘documentary-drama-animation’ shows a devastated earth
in 2055, asking why we failed to act on climate change when
we had the chance. It stars Pete Postlethwaite and interweaves
six individual human stories from around the world, featuring
the oil industry, war, exploitation, inequalities and how
too many of us are not taking global warming seriously.
The team behind the film is aiming for a quarter of a billion
people worldwide to see it in the run up to the global climate
change talks in Copenhagen in December 2009.
Director Franny Armstrong is famous for her documentary
McLibel, which followed two activists who took on fast food
giant McDonald’s in the courts.
She wants The Age of Stupid to “be part of the sea change
in awareness which leads to the greatest ever public uprising
which in turn forces the world’s Governments to make a binding
international agreement to cut global emissions so as to
stabilise global temperatures below two degrees and keep
the planet habitable for humans and other species.”
Screenings from 20 March
Branches and activists are encouraged to go to a first
week screening of the film, from Friday March 20, as how
widely it is shown in cinemas depends on the viewing figures
that week. It will be on, at a minimum in Scotland, at the
Edinburgh Filmhouse, the GFT in Glasgow and the Eden Court
Theatre in Inverness.
Further screening information is on the website, address
below. Members of the Stop Climate Change Scotland coalition
are involved in helping organise events and stalls at the
screenings, with a full programme at the Filmhouse, including
a post-film discussion led by Matthew Crighton, from City
of Edinburgh UNISON, on 26 March.
Your own screening
Branches can also arrange their own screenings from May,
via a temporary license, or can wait for the DVD and arrange
meetings using that to promote discussion on workplace and
political campaigning action on climate change, focusing
on the Scottish Bill and the Copenhagen UN talks.
A three page feature on the film is in the current winter
2009 issue of UNISON members’ U magazine and more information
is also in UNISON Scotland’s Environment newsletter at:
www.unison-scotland.org.uk/greenworkplace
Full details, including of the parallel Not Stupid campaign,
are at: www.ageofstupid.net
headlines . top
|
