Page Text: Big Dams
61,949,313
= all our TV, local screenings & cinema viewers added up. Some accurate - eg TV companies' official figures - and lots guesstimates - eg punters turning up to pub screening in Krakow. more »
THE STORY
The Age of Stupid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, The Usual Suspects, Brassed Off) as a man living in the devastated future world of 2055, looking back at old footage from our time and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Launched at a Guinness World Recording-winning solar-powered premiere in London's Leicester Square, the film was released in cinemas worldwide, topped the UK box office (by screen average), became one of the most talked-about films of 2009 and garnered sensational reviews: The Telegraph called it "Bold, supremely provocative and hugely important", the News of the World described it as "A deeply inconvenient kick up the backside", ABC Australia said "So tightly constructed and dynamic you leave the cinema energised rather than terrified... hits home like a hammer blow" and the LA Times said "Think 'An Inconvenient Truth', but with a personality".
Multi-award-winning documentary director Franny Armstrong (McLibel, Drowned Out) and Oscar-winning producer John Battsek (One Day In September, Restrepo) pioneered the now ubiquitous "crowd-funding" model to finance the film, and then spent four years following seven real people's stories to be interweaved with Pete Postlethwaite's fictional character: an Indian entrepreneur struggling to start 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 windfarm developer in Britain battling the NIMBYs who don't want his turbines to spoil their view.
The Age of Stupid led to the formation of the 10:10 carbon reduction campaign which now operates in 45 countries ( www.1010global.org ). Recognising the film's unique contribution to independent filmmaking, the Huffington Post said that it "represents the future of film, film culture and film distribution and marketing".
The Age of Stupid is now available to view in 20 languages on iTunes, Amazon Prime, Vimeo On Demand, Google Play and direct from this site .
10 YEARS ON
The Age of Stupid was re-released for its 10th Birthday on March 15th 2019. By a beautiful bit of serendipity, this was also the day of the very first GLOBAL schools strike .
To celebrate the re-release - and to commiserate the fact that we are still heading for the disaster dejected in the film - Spanner Films made a new 10 minute short film, WHAT IF? Written and directed by Stupid director Franny Armstrong - and with many of the original film crew returning to work on it. The film stars Ed Miliband, Jon Snow, Jonathan Pie, Jack Harries, Tamsin Allen, Chris Packham and Caroline Lucas as inhabitants of a planet uncannily like Earth in which the people are doing everything they can to stop climate change. Who knew our politicians were such good actors?
Also released for the 10th anniversary is a new film, THE RETURN OF THE AGE OF STUPID , made by the Guardian’s video team. Stupid’s director Franny Armstrong revisits the places and people in the film and asks: what’s changed in the last ten years?
Release details
iTunes - available worldwide, English language version only, from today: https://apple.co/2F4X93k
Vimeo - available worldwide, English language version only, from today: https://bit.ly/2Hm1CCf
Google Play - available in UK, USA, Canada & Australia countries, English language version only, from today: https://bit.ly/2UCxaad
Amazon Prime - available worldwide, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Slovakian, Portuguese from today + 12 more language coming soon: http://amzn.eu/d/4THMKjD
Spanner Films - available worldwide to download or stream in 10+ languages worldwide from today: www.spannerfilms.net/watchnow
BBC4 - Broadcast at 10pm on Thursday 18th April 2019
BBC iplayer - Available for one month from Friday 19th April 2019
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