Climate Change Doom and Gloom at Shortwave
Last week I made my first trip to the Shortwave, the new independent cinema in Bermondsey Square.
It's only got a small auditorium of about the same size as the bar out the front, but it's quite quaint. I particularly loved the way they have clearly got the seating second hand from somewhere else, so that all the seats have numbers, but are in almost an entirely random order. The padded walls are quite nice to lean on too.
Last Tuesday I went to see the 11th hour. It was quite well put together and certainly put it's message across well, but I felt they concentrated too much on scientists talking about the science, which just made it feel overly preachy. It also seemed to want to show all the potential doom from climate change, which meant it never went into any great depth about many of the points and you ended up with scientists making broad sweeping statements about climate change without seeing any of the evidence that backs them up even though it is out there.
All in all, it's very dramatic and thought provoking, but just not very rigourously argued. Maybe it's enough to get attention to the issue, but given it came out in 2007 and I'm not entirely sure it's that well known, maybe it won't manage that. If you want to see a film on this subject, Age of Stupid does a better job and shows it in a much more close to home way.
Then, on Wednesday there was End of the Line. Focusing on over-fishing gave this film the develop a much stronger argument than 11th hour and highlights the importance of checking the fish we consume is from a sustainable source (although it's easy for me to say that as I haven't eaten fish in years). They also gave a good blend of scientists explaining their research on quantities of fish stocks, people involved in the fish industry all over the world and the changes they've noticed, as well as reporters investigating the fish served in restaurants over here and it's origins. As such it does a good job of showing how our consumption here affects the stocks in the sea and also how to change this to be more sustainable even without giving up consuming fish.
Of the two, End of the Line is more worth seeing, which is convenient as it's the one that's just come out. In London, it's showing at the Greenwich Picturehouse tonight and then at the Prince Charles off Leicester Square tomorrow (Other UK screenings)
It's only got a small auditorium of about the same size as the bar out the front, but it's quite quaint. I particularly loved the way they have clearly got the seating second hand from somewhere else, so that all the seats have numbers, but are in almost an entirely random order. The padded walls are quite nice to lean on too.
Last Tuesday I went to see the 11th hour. It was quite well put together and certainly put it's message across well, but I felt they concentrated too much on scientists talking about the science, which just made it feel overly preachy. It also seemed to want to show all the potential doom from climate change, which meant it never went into any great depth about many of the points and you ended up with scientists making broad sweeping statements about climate change without seeing any of the evidence that backs them up even though it is out there.
All in all, it's very dramatic and thought provoking, but just not very rigourously argued. Maybe it's enough to get attention to the issue, but given it came out in 2007 and I'm not entirely sure it's that well known, maybe it won't manage that. If you want to see a film on this subject, Age of Stupid does a better job and shows it in a much more close to home way.
Then, on Wednesday there was End of the Line. Focusing on over-fishing gave this film the develop a much stronger argument than 11th hour and highlights the importance of checking the fish we consume is from a sustainable source (although it's easy for me to say that as I haven't eaten fish in years). They also gave a good blend of scientists explaining their research on quantities of fish stocks, people involved in the fish industry all over the world and the changes they've noticed, as well as reporters investigating the fish served in restaurants over here and it's origins. As such it does a good job of showing how our consumption here affects the stocks in the sea and also how to change this to be more sustainable even without giving up consuming fish.
Of the two, End of the Line is more worth seeing, which is convenient as it's the one that's just come out. In London, it's showing at the Greenwich Picturehouse tonight and then at the Prince Charles off Leicester Square tomorrow (Other UK screenings)