The Age of Stupid

Pete Postlethwaite plays 'the archivist', alone in 2055 after humankind's decimation by global warming. The cinema screen becomes his VDU, as he drags and drops film fragments that document how we've reached this fate. Free from any Michael Moore melodrama or Al Gore polemics, the real life stories in The Age of Stupid don't need any manipulation to evoke emotions. The most poignant footage follows an Iraqi boy and girl whose father was killed by US forces. The young boy swears to avenge his father's death by killing Americans, a private tragedy within the wider causes and effects behind global warming. Director Franny Armstrong succeeds in capturing human spirit as well as its stupidity. Each clip cuts back to the archivist, forcing us to face our own complicity as consumers, and urging us to push the pause button on our own parts in climate change. [Alistair Roy]