My Stupid Friends

Aging mountain guide Fernand watches the glaciers he loves melt away. Entrepreneur Jay brings low-cost airlines to India. Texan oil scientist Alvin saddles up his motorbike to visit his hurricane-devastated home. It could only be climate film sensation the Age of Stupid, which on March 20th will be unveiled in a massive, simultaneous 'People's Premiere' all across the country.

I first came across the film maybe a year and a half ago, when a friend of mine scored a job working for Franny (the director) as an archive researcher and general dogsbody. It was exciting to see a film about climate change that wasn't going to blast the audience with climate science and policy, but instead tell the story of how our planet is changing through the lives of the people on the climate front line.

Over the coming months they got Pete Postlethwaite on board to be the star narrator, they got a load of amazing animations, and the film came together, powered forward by just a few people upstairs in a small semi in north London, funded not by a big distributor or production company, but by selling shares to those who wanted to see the film made.

Fast forward to the present day, and the whole thing has taken off big time. ‘Team Stupid' (as they call themselves) seem, one way or another, to have roped in pretty much every active young environmentalist I've met over the past three years to help them out - including some of my friends. Dan, who when I first met him was organising student climate conferences, is now campaigner-in-chief for the ‘Not Stupid' campaign, Leo, who makes amazing animations, is their blogger, Rich, who I used to work with, is advising them on how to have the greenest premiere in the history of film... (Bicycle rickshaws, solar cars and sewage-powered heaters...)

So the disclaimer is it's providing employment to a bunch of my mates. But disclaimer aside, go and see it anyway because it's an important film, and I guarantee it will make you think, and form an opinion.

In particular, go and see it on March 15th - the ‘People's Premiere' - because the more people who attend the premiere, the better their chances of it getting a national release and going stratospheric. Visit The Age of Stupid premiere site to find out more.