[Vision2020] "The Age of Stupid" Sept. 21, 2009: Solar Cinema LIVE to 115, 000 in 400 Theatres Across the US

Sat Aug 29 14:14:18 PDT 2009

   http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=1987

>From website above:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leading the call for communities around
the world to take advantage of Global Climate Week from September 21-25 to
encourage leaders to seal a fair, balanced and effective climate agreement.
------------------------------------
**
*Climate science supervisor for the film "Age of Stupid" is Mark Lynas,
author of "Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet," a excellent read
that I highly recommend, packed with scientific information presented in a
readable style for a public readership:*
**
http://www.ageofstupid.net/the_science

>From website above:

*Dr Richard Betts, Head of Climate Impacts, Met Office Hadley Centre*
**
We worked closely with respected climate expert Mark Lynas to ensure that
all of the scenarios shown in Stupid represent a credible view of the future
which is drawn from mainstream peer-reviewed climate science.
----------------------------------------------
 Lynas's Six Degrees wins Royal Society award

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jun/17/news.science

Speaking after the ceremony at the Royal Society, Lynas said he was
delighted with his prize, "not least because the bookmaker William Hill
judged my book the least likely to win.

"It's not just an accolade for me," he added, "but also for the work of the
climate scientists on whose shoulders my writing rests. The book is for a
popular audience, and of course it hasn't been peer-reviewed, so to get this
accolade from one of the most distinguished scientific bodies in the world
means a lot."

The book saw off strong competition from shortlisted authors including the
1994 winner Steve Jones for Coral, J Craig Venter for A Life Decoded and Ian
Stewart for Why Beauty is Truth. Chair of the judges professor Jonathan
Ashmore said: "Six degrees is not just a great read, written in an original
way, but also provides a good overview of the latest science on this highly
topical issue.
*----------------------------*
**
*http://www.ageofstupid.net/*
*--------------------------------*
**
*Closest showing will be in Spokane, according to info below:*
**
*http://www.ageofstupid.net/usa*
-----------------------------
**
*The Age of Stupid* is the new four-year epic from McLibel director Franny
Armstrong <http://www.ageofstupid.net/people/franny_armstrong>.
Oscar-nominated Pete
Postlethwaite<http://www.ageofstupid.net/people/pete_postlethwaite>stars
as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at old
footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had
the chance? *MORE* <http://www.ageofstupid.net/the_film>

From: Franny Armstrong
To: age-of-stu...<http://groups.google.com/groups/unlock?_done=/group/monbiot-discuss/msg/6cbf4d32688bc5ed&msg=6cbf4d32688bc5ed>
@aos.dh.bytemark.co.uk
Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 3:26 PM
Subject: [Age-of-Stupid] USA launch 21st Sept: tickets now on sale

Hello from Hollywood (think I'm joking?),

Hold on to your hats everybody.... there ain't no getting off the Stupid
rollercoaster now... so take a deep breath and then take a look at this map
of all the American cinemas who've signed up for the US launch on 21st
September....  tickets for which are now on sale (see below).... oh my oh
my...

But it seems that we might be about to hit critical mass press-wise: there
were 28,009 new articles mentioning "The Age of Stupid" in the last 24
hours... Helped by the fact that we were on the front page of the New York
Times last week. Think that needs repeating... We were on the front page of
the New York Times last week - in the same sentence as Quentin Tarantino,
for god's sake - which has now been syndicated to all sorts of massive
publications like the Herald Tribune, Scotsman and Business Week.  Then
yesterday we had a press screening at Paramount Studios - a thrill in itself
- packed full of journos nodding furiously at my "the next three months will
define our generation" line. Let's hope they print it...  Then came
interviews with Time, Wall St Journal, San Francisco Chronicle and Hollywood
Reporter, some of whom are talking about big feature articles on everything
from crowd-funding to green carpets to 440 cinemas to Copenhagen. And to top
it off, I had a "chat" (read: audition) with a "talent-booker" for a VERY
big, VERY famous chatshow which is considering doing a feature on climate
change. If they decide to include Stupid in their piece - possibly even with
Pete or me on the sofa - then we will be catapulted into a whole new
stratosphere awareness-wise. Fingers crossed.

There's one more press screening in LA tomorrow (Sunday 23rd) - introduced
by yours truly and hosted by indie distribution guru Peter Broderick - so if
anyone in the LA area would like to win tickets to join us, head over here:
ageofstupid.net/competitions

Have to admit I am slightly losing the plot out here on my own...  waking up
to 200 emails all labelled "URGENT: REPLY IMMEDIATELY" is not a recipe for
skipping merrily through dandelions - being on a different timezone doesn't
help on that front - and everything is much harder without being able to
laugh with your comrades at the ludicrousness of it all:  Lizzie and I
haven't seen each other since she left London for New York six weeks ago,
though we did spend 3 hours sleeping in the same bed in Sydney (I arrived at
2am after the Australia parliament screening, she left at 5am for a flight
to New Zealand).

But enough of my whinging, here's the plan...

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.

Tickets now on sale - and list of participating theatres - here:
http://www.ageofstupid.net/usa
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122440801800

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.
6. Go mad on Facebook
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
a...<http://groups.google.com/groups/unlock?_done=/group/monbiot-discuss/msg/6cbf4d32688bc5ed&msg=6cbf4d32688bc5ed>
@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.

Australia & NZ launch last week...
... was a bloody triumph. Lizzie hosting in Auckland, myself in Sydney,
giant penguins walking the green carpet, koalas in boats under the Sydney
Harbour bridge, top celebs crying, Keisha Castle-Hughes in a rickshaw, Piers
the windfarm man getting a surprise phone call in his meeting in Cornwall
and ending up speaking live to Oz & NZ, Senator Milne calling the Australian
Government the "House of Stupid", huge teams from Global Vision Networks,
Green Elephant,  LA Publicity, Oxfam and Greenpeace all working together
seamlessly on either side of the sea, Lizzie's Dad and my Mum together on
the green carpet (not together together, obviously), the whole
live-link-to-explorer-in-the-Arctic thing actually working, 20 mins on
primetime NZ telly (between three different shows), the solar-powered tent
in Auckland, Rod's super-cool animation zooming from the whole globe right
down to the Sydney Theatre, the writer of Happy Feet's hilarious wisecrack,
the singer of top Aussie band Cat Empire volunteering to play at
Copenhagen.... Unbelievably, not a single element failed, which gives us
mucho courage for the even-more-ambitious Global Premiere. My favourite bit
of the whole thing was when we were speaking live to explorer Eric Philips
in the Arctic. There was a time delay of a few seconds, so when the Sydney
Theatre crowd gave him a massive cheer he just looked blank... for a few
seconds... and then broke out into a massive green.
-> The film is screening in cinemas across New Zealand and Australia for the
rest of this week (only), so please tell all your friends:
New Zealand: http://www.ageofstupid.net/screenings/country/newzealand
Australia: http://www.ageofstupid.net/screenings/country/australia
-> Lizzie's report of the NZ premiere here.
-> Compiled news reports here, including Lizzie on Good Morning New Zealand
sofa and Franny doing battle with Kim Hill
-> Pictures of NZ solar-green-carpet cinema tent here
-> Pictures of OZ: haven't got them together yet, will do soon
-> The full video of the satellite broadcast will be up on our website as
soon as Ade sends the tapes from Oz and Andy gets a chance to upload them.

In other news
- "The idea we've been waiting 20 years for". Big launch of the new climate
campaign on 1st September. In normal circumstances this would be the
headline, not a footnote... Anyhow, volunteers needed on August 28th to 1st
September: some for very glamourous jobs, some pretty boring. More details
here or contact
a...<http://groups.google.com/groups/unlock?_done=/group/monbiot-discuss/msg/6cbf4d32688bc5ed&msg=6cbf4d32688bc5ed>
@1010uk.org
- Really cute film about a recent pedal-powered Stupid screening in UK here
- Stupid-inspired local campaign to get shops turning off their lights at
night here
- 350's Bill McKibben on the Colbert Report:
http://www.350.org/billoncolbert
- I've turned into a twitterer: follow me here:
http://twitter.com/frannyarmstrong
- Lest we forget why we're doing all this: latest from Greece

Better go to sleep, as it's late here and I have to do a skype Q&A to a film
festival in Copenhagen in, aaargh, four hours time.
Over and out from LA,
Frazzled Franny
------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20090829/084ea852/attachment-0001.html 