cineSOURCE magazine

Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features (click on broll or dschwartz for all his posts)

The Age of Stupid
“It’s amazing,” the Archivist asks, “what state of mind were we in, to face extinction, and simply shrug it off?” He sits in a vast room, atop a tall tower, The Global Archive. It is 2055 AD. The Earth’s ecosphere has been decimated by global warming. Small bands of humans roam the planet. The Archive is humanity’s memory.

"The Age of Stupid" is a hybrid movie—a little fictional story containing a big documentary which, in turn, contains several little true stories. The Archivist, played by the late British actor Pete Postlethwaite, sits in the bowels of his giant high-tech tower, 800 km north of Norway. Below is the melted Arctic Ocean. He is alone, looking at and through a large transparent computer display. We’re on the other side, facing him. This is his blog, an obituary for humanity. He’s about to send our story into the universe for whoever may find and benefit from it. But first he is reviewing a few human stories, from this time period, our time period, a few years before 2015, the year in which Earth’s rising temperatures must begin to reverse in order to prevent global environmental destruction.

He sees stories about six people. Alvin Duvernay, a New Orleans-based paleontologist who worked 30 years for Shell Oil Company; Piers Guy, a windfarm developer from the United Kingdom; Jeh Wadia, an Indian entrepreneur starting India’s third low-fare airline; Layeta Malemi, a Nigerian who dreams of becoming a doctor; Jamita Bayyoud, an 8-year old Iraqi refugee living with her brother in Jordan; and Fernand Pareau, an 82 year old French mountain guide – who is still working.

At first glance one may wonder how this particular set of people figures into the potential destruction of our ecosphere. As we learn about their experiences, thoughts, and actions it becomes clear, yet ethically complex. Alvin Duvernay, for instance, has no regrets serving Shell Oil for 30 years, the same company that devastated Layeta Malemi’s village and its environment. Duvernay, if he had to do it over again, would work the exact same job. Yet he has become an environmentalist, extolling the virtues of nature, living a minimal carbon foot print. It is Duvernay who inadvertently utters the film’s title. The richness and challenges of these people’s lives, the complexity of their ethics confront our own ethics and embolden our hearts as we are forced to yet again consider the Zen koan of our personal actions in a global context.

In addition to the film’s documentary footage, the Archivist’s comments and some animation providing specific environmental information are peppered throughout the stories. "The Age of Stupid" was written and directed by Franny Armstrong, and produced over a period of four years. It is a masterpiece.

Don Schwartz June 24, 2011