Lizzie Gillett, the producer of The
Age of Stupid - (the movie premiere Lucy attended on 19 August 2009 in
Auckland) sent the following note about the movie and the premiere in
the US on 21 September 2009. If you wish to support this film, please
pass this along to other sites, forums and email lists:
What is this movie about?
'The Age Of Stupid is the documentary-drama-animation hybrid from
Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel, Drowned Out) and Oscar-winning
Producer John Battsek (One Day In September, Live Forever, In the Shadow
of the Moon). Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the
Father, Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects) stars as an old man living in
the devastated world of 2055. He watches 'archive' footage from 2008 and
asks: Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance? Runaway
climate change has ravaged the planet by 2055. Pete plays the founder of
The Global Archive, a storage facility located in the (now melted)
Arctic, preserving all of humanity's achievements in the hope that the
planet might one day be habitable again. Or that intelligent life may
arrive and make use of all that weve achieved. He pulls together clips
of archive news and documentary from 1950-2008 to build a message
showing what went wrong and why. He focuses on six human stories
Global
Premiere: America
Brought
to you by
Fathom
Events, The
Age of Stupid will launch in America on September 21st 2009 from
a solar-powered cinema tent in New York LIVE to 115,000 people in
400 movie theatres right across the country. This
One
Night Only live event is your only chance to see
The
Age of Stupid on the big screen and is timed for the day before
the UN's climate meeting on September 22nd, when 80 Heads of State -
and therefore the world's media - will gather in New York. (The
event has also just been confirmed as being an official part of
UN
Climate Week.)
As an INclusive, rather than EXclusive event, everyone is
invited to go to their local theatre to watch the VIPs arrive in
Manhattan by boat, bike, rickshaw, chipfat car or skateboard,
before braving the paparazzi on the green carpet. Following the
first US screening of
The
Age of Stupid, there will be a further 40 minute live event
featuring
Kofi
Annan,
Gillian
Anderson,
Mary
Robinson, the film's director
Franny
Armstrong, the star of the film
Pete
Postlethwaite, and other leading thinkers, celebrities and
political figures from around the world. Audiences will hear
from scientists working in the Himalayas and Indonesian rain
forest via live satellite link and from a group of children
speaking from the very room in Copenhagen in which all our
futures will be decided at the
UN
climate summit in December.
Radiohead's
Thom Yorke will wrap up the evening with a short acoustic
performance.
The timings are: 7:30 PM ET/ 6:30 PM CT / 5:30 PM MT /
tape delayed 8PM PT.
For a taste of what to expect, have a look at the
UK
launch in March 2009, which produced just 1% of the
emissions of a standard Hollywood event and which broke the
Guinness World Record for biggest simultaneous premiere.
How you can help (even if you're not in US)
We have a grand total of zero dollars for advertising, so please,
please help however you can:
1. Buy tickets to your local cinema for you, your mum, your
boyfriend, your boyfriend's hairdresser and all their friends
2. Put together an outing for your school/sports team/church - make
an evening of it by arranging a meal before or after the event
(after may be better, as you'll all hopefully be inspired to start
discussing how you can get involved in climate actions in your
area)
3. Email the attached e-flyer to all your American friends, asking
them to pass it on. The paragraph above (under "Global Premiere:
America) is a good basic intro you could send your pals if they
don't want all this chitchat (but why wouldn't they?!?)
4. Send the info round on any mailing list you are part of
5. Go onto the US listing page (
http://www.ageofstupid.net/usa
), look through the locations and then send the details direct
to your friends in whichever town/city they're in. There's an easy
widget on each individual theatre's page, which lets you send the
details without faffing around with emails.
7. Go mad on Twitter
8. Rate/review the film (if you've seen it) on
the
Fandango website (the US ticket sellers). Seeing loads of
enthusiastic reviews makes a really big difference to people who are
undecided as to whether or not to go
9. Go along to any climate/enviro/activist meetings happening in
your area and do a quick one minute talk about the Stupid launch
10. If you are in the US and able to hand out flyers / put up
posters in your nearest theatre, please email
ali@ageofstupid.net for instructions
A massive thank you to all the people who've put in such huge
amounts of effort to get us to the starting line here in the US:
particularly Amy & Bethany from Fathom, Martin from Greenpeace, Ben
from tcktcktck, Laura from MoveOn, Lenny & Eric from All Mobile
Video, Aaron & Lisa from Usual Suspects and Meghan from Rogers &
Cowan. Onwards...
Global Premiere: All Other Countries
Tickets will be going on sale later this week. Latest exciting
additions: Nigeria, Iraq and Sierra Leone. But Antarctica not
looking so good, as there is no ship/plane going there before
September who could drop a DVD off - and their broadband is
apparently not up to downloading a whole film. Shucks.