As Sue mentions below, "The Age of Stupid" was shown last night at conference. It was a very impressive film. It will be released in early 2009.It's time to start calling up the local arty cinema to get them to schedule it/look out for it.
The film stars Pete Postlethwaite as a lone archivist, in a platform in the midst of a raging sea, in 2055. The ark-ive contains the world's art, two of each animal, and the digitised knowledge of humanity in humming Matrix-hatchery-esque servers.
The set-up is a faux documentary, narrated by Postlethwaite asking why we didn't act earlier, which looks at six case-studies in 2008 (an aspiring medical student in the Niger Delta; a French mountain-climber mourning over glaciers; a wind turbine project manager frustrated with NIMBYs; Iraqi refugees in Jordan - the idea of climate wars; a retired oil worker who was a local hero during the Katrina aftermath; and a Indian Stelios setting up a low-cost airline).
What's also interesting is that the film was "crowd-funded" ... 280 investors gave between £50 and £5000 and each own a percentage of the film. This gives the filmmakers complete editorial freedom, plus control of the distribution. All profits will be shared between the investors and crew, who worked for massively reduced rates.
The folks to contact for more information about screening the film, and its widespread distribution, is Spanner Films.
Photo credit: www.puritymedia.co.uk
