Love or Hate Michael Moore (a lot of people feel both) there is no denying that he’s responsible for kicking the art of documentary filmmaking much further into the main stage of public awareness than almost anything else in the last 10 years. And now there is a documentary making the rounds that many people are calling the scariest film they’ve ever seen. No, it’s not a Doc about cannibals, or torture houses in Europe that lure in unsuspecting American backpackers… it’s about Global Warming.
The documentary follows Al Gore (former US Vice President) and his lecture series that he’s given thousands of times around the world on the topic. The folks over at M&C have a wonderful article about it up on their site. Here are a few excerpts:
One of the most moving and revelatory sections of the film comes during a visit to the farm in Tennessee where Gore grew up. ‘We were walking around his farm, the cameras were off, and we were in this skeleton of a big tobacco barn and he said, “I used to stand up there in the rafters and I would hang this tobacco.” And I asked why his father shut it down, and he said, “Well, my sister died of lung cancer.”
Wow… here’s another:
In fact, Guggenheim says part of what appealed to him about Al Gore`s slideshow is that “he didn`t seem to have a political agenda, he wasn`t taking Republicans to task. He genuinely believes that the Democrats have to change just as much as Republicans do. And voters have to make it a priority. His presentation is fair-minded that way. He`s not pounding his chest – he`s saying this is where we are, we all have to wake up to this.”
Still, Guggenheim feels Gore`s environmental passions have been unfairly criticized by the opposition party. “The first Bush called Gore `Ozone Man.` “If he gets elected, we`ll be up to our necks in owls,” he said.
Yeah… sounds like a Bush-ism
Anyway, I really recommend heading over and giving the whole article a read. It’s excellent and my hat is off to Kevin Lally for writing it. I can’t wait to see it… and yet I’m scared to death to watch it.