[128shot]

hook line sinker...

[skiwi]

Appears to be available for local screening

http://www.whatawaytogomovie.com/

UPDATE: The movie is now complete. We’re submitting it to festivals
and looking for a distributor. Copies are not yet available for
purchase. However, if people are interested in organizing local
screenings, that’s a possibility.
Email Sally Erickson at [email protected].

A REVIEW OF THE DOCUMENTARY "What A Way To Go: Life At The End Of Empire", by Tim Bennett and Sally Erickson

[peripato]

Another review of the documentary from Jan Lundberg of Culture Change.

The documentary is in four parts: "Waking on the train", "The train and the tracks", "The locomotive power", and "Walkabout." So, in a well organized fashion, in just over two hours, the film thoroughly explores elements of our planetary predicament: how we got into it, how bad it is, and what our prospects are for recognizing our collective dilemma before it's too late. One gets the clear sensation of needing to immediately save our planet for the approximate half of today's living species that may still be around in a few decades.

Looks worthwile...

[kochevnik]

The 'youth' of today are nothing more than the cannon fodder for the next war. Shadow-Boomers.

Who you should really watch are the Gen-Xers - those born from the early 60's to the very early 80's. They are the ones who will be in positions of power as the 60 something Boomers (Clinton & Bush) fade from power over the next decade.

[Blacksmith]

My only regret is that I will not live to see the changes that will take effect, but if I could suggest you look anywhere look at Cuba they have been doing without a surplus of oil for quite sometime. Oxen and horses are really loving animals, not as much fun as an ATV or an SUV, but fun never the less.

"Every man is a smith who forges his own happiness"

[Roccland]

What a Way to Go Movie

[Roccland]

bump

[Roccland]

Two trailers here

[Roccland]

I saw this last night.

Cried.

[JohnLudi]

Just got my copy in the mail yesterday. Only had time to watch the first 10 minutes...but if that was any indication, it is a quality piece of work. I'll comment more when I've watched all of it this week.

[TheDude]

"What a Way to Go" - Meet the Filmmakers. About 26 minutes long. There are two trailers at YouTube as well.

[vsixpack]

I saw this film at a screening in NYC. It was amazing. It is very information dense so your "average" person is probably not going to be able to handle it too well.

I was well aware of everything mentioned in the film but seeing in put together in a 2 hour documentary was very powerful.

There are many credible professors from large academic institutions (duke, etc) in the film. I felt that was really important because your "average" person will be less likely to tune them out or use the excuse that my mother give me about peak oil.

"Robert, people can write whatever they want in books." or I get the answer "They are just trying to scare people to sell books"

This film is the ultimate wake-up call that looks at HOW our society got HERE as well as stating the large problems we are facing with:
-peak oil
-Global climate change
-Mass Extinction
-Overpopulation

[NEOPO]

I thought the following was an appropriate bump for this one...

Castles made of sand

[Resurrection]

This is now what I show people who I'm trying to enlighten. I figure if they can watch this and not be affected, or in some way have their eyes opened, there is no hope for them.

[BlisteredWhippet]

BTW, three of them are in need of girlfriends (any takers here? 20-something women with brains and vision and eager to live in rural community, PM me and I'll put you in touch with the dudes).

I'm most interested in how this particular search goes. Keep us posted, gg3.

[PhebaAndThePilgrim]

Good day from Pheba from the Farm:
I just finished watching "Life at the End of Empire". What the producer says at the beginning of the film is so true.
You just have to let go, watch the film, and just let it wash over you. There is a very long film clip that is suppossed to be a dream the author is having. The dream is a collage of all of our problems. Very intense, especially if you just let go, and let it wash over you.
Most of the film is based on the book "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.
Peak Oil, overpopulation and other problems are the focus of the film also. Very well made. The authors prose is just beautiful. Very well written
Repeated interviews with Heinberg, Quinn and others.
I plan on watching it again. I was distracted the first time I watched it.
If you are expecting a happy chapter at the end of this film, you will be dissapointed. There is no happy chapter.
A very sad film. But all the way through it I kept saying to myself, and aloud to my hubby; "My God, this is my fear. This is my pain. This is exactly what I have been feeling for years.
My hubby almost never gives a movie a high rating. He gave this film an 8.5. That is almost unheard of. I give it a 9.
I do not give it a ten because I like films with a happy ending.
Pheba, from the farm.

[Ayame]

If you are expecting a happy chapter at the end of this film, you will be dissapointed. There is no happy chapter.

Sounds like my type of film. I will have to check it out. One of the things that really got to me about the british PO docudrama that was on not too long ago was that in the end everything went back to normal as if some pixies had landed and magiced it all right again. I was like WTF, that is so not going to happen.

[Rhinestones]

Two weeks back I eagerly sat down with my wife, 17 yo son, and a 26 yr old nephew to watch this movie and I haven't been the same since. Suz only made it through the first hour before retiring to the first of several nights of disturbing dreams. My son bailed at at 1:20 and our nephew was nearly asleep, then gone by 1:45 mark. I really feel for all the kids. This message is so counter to the "'stories' that fill the very air we breath" I think Tim said.
As noted, there was no new information. We've been Peak Everything aware and preparing dramatically for almost 3 years. Still, this film has had a real impact and I'm physically stuck with the emotional tremblor the viewing helped release. Oh, we did have a 3.1 earthquake near here last week too.
I bought 3 copies with one for my brother and i'm more concerned he'll watch it than not watch it! Oh boy. I don't feel like I know many people who would be able to handle this one and I'm long past my evangelical phase.

Tim and Sally (great blogs!) hit their mark with this movie.
Congratulations and THANK YOU.

[Carlhole]

What A Way To Go

I never pay for anything anymore.

[Carlhole]

Well I'm glad I copped this for free on the internet because it had absolutely nothing new for me. It's sort of a doom prose poem/video montage in most places.

It seemed to be created for younger minds who are just getting acquainted with the idea that there most likely WILL BE some kind of mass human tragedy in our future related to peak oil and resource depletion, global warming, de-speciation, over-population, overshoot, etc.

We just don't know exactly how it's all going to play out yet and what the results will be. And we don't know if the beautiful human spirit will rise to the occasion in some unforeseeable way...

The films ends with a picture of humanity returning to nature. But it didn't mention that a global Earth-Mother-values paradigm change is not nearly enough. Six and a half billion motherfuckers can't all live like the Indians did.

I've found it impossible to sustain a "shocked" emotional state over material like this for more than a week or two. I think it was back in 2002 that I felt my own week or two of Peak Oil shock, decades ago for shock over eco-destruction. But it's like trying to hold a realistic smile for a slow photographer. It fades.

And once you contemplate death seriously for a while, it just doesn't seem to matter very much. (I think this is the secret learned in war by veteran soldiers).

So an introductory film like What A Way To Go: Life At The End Of Empireis just fucking boring after you've already seen better films, read a bunch of books, devoured every article and discussed it all ad infinitum online.

Although I have to admit as someone approaching 50 years of age, the last time I felt like doing a couple of bong hits, cranking up "Megadeath" to painful headphones volume and masturbating in the dark to a demonic end of everything fantasy - was quite a long time ago. But "What A Way To Go" kinda made me want to do it all over again! (Ok, maybe some acid too).