Silver Screen: The Age of Stupid

Caring for the environment – this is one idea that most people are actively talking about; however it just starts and ends from there. To most of us, it’s just an idea. Something that we keep at the back of our heads until its forgotten. Yes, some of us are actively buy clothing, bumper stickers, paraphernalia, attend concerts, join fund-raisers that promote the idea of caring for the environment; but will it just be up to that? Do we ever ask ourselves where is the result of my ‘environmental’ activities? Will it just be another fad or trend that goes in and out of style?

The Age of Stupid is a documentary that tackles the history of the human race and the planet that they’re living in. In a nutshell, it presents us on how our greed and hypocrisy towards our environment/natural resources/planet will lead us to our own extinction. As what the narrator mentioned in the film:

“I just find it surprising that after so much effort; the final act of our existence should be suicide.”

The film presents stories from different point of views: A poor girl from Nigeria struggling to find funds for her college; a tycoon from India starting his very own budget airline; Two kids caught up in the War in Iraq; An environmentalist employee of a huge Oil Company; A French tour guide devastated by the climate change and an English Engineer whose dreams were destroyed by vanity. All of these characters gives us a little insight on how directly or indirectly climate change is affecting them. We see how some of their principles change through-out the movie not just because of the issue on the environment but also because of norms and society.

There is a lot of ideas presented in the film that really made me think. One is the idea of Consumerism.

“Lots of ideas have tried to take over the world but there is only one winner: Consumerism“

Everywhere there is advertisements, advertisements and lots of advertisements. Advertisements from companies that lure us into buying their products promising us that we’ll be happier, cooler, smarter when in fact it just feeds and enlarges our very own greed. People now want more and more stuff. A new phone model-A new camera-Tons of accessories-Unecessary sweets-desserts-A new car-There’s not an end to this! Just take a look back at our history, most wars were started by human greed: War on diamonds, War on Oil, War on Spices.

I just hope that people remind themselves to consume responsibly. Our natural resources are now diminishing and still we have no reliable alternative energy source (Most projects such as Solar power and electric cars were still underdeveloped). By the year 2050, I can’t really say that there can be a planet earth that can sustain life.

Are we that selfish that we strip the life of the planet for the enjoyment of the current generation? Think about it?

There is still time. Don’t be stupid. We can still act out.

The Age of Stupid Facebook page. Be a Fan. Watch the Film. I highly recommend it.

Silver Screen Returns!

Yes. I’m bringing it back: Silver Screen 2-point-Oh. In my previous blog home I usually write short reviews on the latest movies that I’ve just seen. Sometimes in one movie-review-post I would feature at least three films and give out just my quick impressions on them. I kept doing that for sometime until it became a boring. I mean here am I writing my impressions on movies that most people have already seen or planning on seeing… so I lost interest on doing that.

This time around with Silver Screen 2.0, I plan to feature films of all types (Animation, Documentary, Live Action, Foreign, Local) that were actually good but didn’t had the chance to be shown in our local shores or were underrated. There were actually a lot of good films out there. Sometimes we just need to open our minds to them. So here I am again, inviting you to join me in my journey to the different realms of Moving Pictures!