Everyone has been asking me what I thought of “The Age of Stupid” and I’m finally getting around to it because I guess I didn’t really know what to say… Don’t get me wrong, it’s an absolutely brilliant film and one that I recommend you watch at least twice (preferably with subtitles though, I feel I missed a chunk, my French is pretty basic and my Arabic non-existent.) But is that the point? To comment on how well made the documentary was or perhaps should we maybe focus on the message? Yes, of course it helps if its slickly made, pacey and sticks to the point (and takes a hilarious dig at Jeh Wadia and the airline industry in the process) but are we watching this for its creative contribution to new cinema or because time’s up and if we don’t start doing something soon we are going to wipe ourselves off the planet? How stupid would that be? I guess it’s one of those things that (as Bittu Sahgal, editor of Sanctuary Asia, India’s premier wildlife and ecology magazine aptly put it) will provoke conversations with ourselves, so here’s the one I’m having, feel free to listen in;
Random thoughts:
I had no idea flights cause so much damage to the environment. I wish I know how I felt about that. Will I stop flying? I don’t know; I don’t really fly that much anyway but I know so many people who do (and it usually means you have a better job!) Do you think if I tell them that they’ll stop or at least cut down?
Will anything I do (or stop doing), really make a difference?
What if I started sharing taxi’s with random strangers? Can I hide my carbon footprint by piggy backing on someone else? I guess that halves it for us both anyway…
I wonder what they told Jeh Wadia when they shot this with him? Surely something about how the rich and restless are really “shaking things up” in India!
I might still be around in 2055.
Was it the air-conditioning or the movie that was giving me chills?
Was it really ok to watch this movie while I sat on a plastic chair, stirring my drink with a plastic swizzle stick paid for with my plastic card?
I don’t want to be stupid anymore. I just hope I don’t go and do the stupid thing and forget all about this tomorrow.
What?! 7.9 times the average Indian? How can that be? I don’t cook, I don’t have a car and I never drink milk. Damn those flights to Goa must have done me in.
P.S. Kinda cool how they pulled this off all across the world, maybe I’m not the only one up tonight (not reading Twilight) and thinking about this?