Monday, May 17, 2010
CHANGE ARTIST
Today's movie was the documentary
in which a writer undertakes to live for one year without making an impact on the environment.
I know. It sounds dull and ploddy and preachy and it is not. It is delightful.
If he does it, so must his wife and daughter. The talk between the two adults is priceless. Wife is not so enthusiastic. She actually has to withdraw from caffeine and retail dependence at the same time! But there are also other issues.
I am sure we do not see all of it but there is enough to illuminate these young people and their commitment to one another and their community.
We meet some more interesting people along the way. A Village activist socialist who is the only vegetable gardener in the community garden. Everyone else grows flowers!
A family that lives in total independence on the land in upstate New York. And so on.
This film is beautifully paced and it is funny. They guy reads out the really nasty flamers on his blog and in response to a really snarky NYTimes article.
We see him being interviewed. And we see him being taken seriously.
It is very good. I would see it again any time. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
The very dead serious message about this is that it shows a lot of the fallacy of recycling and other gestures to the world problem. Even if we do what we can and even if we would go as far as No Impact Man it is not enough. Institutional and governmental change is critical. We are dying. Will we do what we need to do?
Labels: films
