Repertoire

The Planet

Doc. | Swe/Norw/DK 2006, 82 Min.

The next 20 to 50 years are crucial for life on Earth. In the film The Planet we will tell the story about how the Earth rapidly changes and what it means to us as human beings.

It is the most extensive documentary project ever being produced in Scandinavia. The film crews have been working for more than 2 years and have visited over 25 countries around the world.

The extraordinary visual style and the unexpected content in The Planet will unlock the alienated attitude many people have built up in relation to the subject.

The Planet is about much more than climate change. It’s about the Earth as a whole - it’s about the overall global changes we are experiencing right now.

Today the planet is dominated by human activities. The magnitude and pace of the human induced change are unprecedented. Humankind has begun to match and even exceed some of the great forces of nature. And soon we will be nine billion people.

In the film you will meet the most respected researchers on global changes to be found today. You will also meet ordinary people who in one way or another have been affected by the changes.

You will meet them in nature, on land or on the oceans - from the glaciers in Europe, into the jungles of the Amazon Basin, through the polluted mega-cities of Asia, crossing the African deserts and back up to the Antarctic.

In other words: we will take you around the world to the places where the most obvious traces of global environmental changes are to be found.

The Planet is a film of the highest technical and artistic quality about global environmental changes – the natural rhythms and dynamics of the Earth as a system, the processes which control these planetary rhythms, the ways in which human activities are affecting the metabolism of Earth, and what the future might hold for the planet and for homo sapiens.

Global change is a reality. We know that humans are affecting the Earth’s functioning at a global scale. How will the Earth cope? What are we going to do about it?

Some scientists, politicians and ordinary people claim that Earth is fragile, that we must stop the pollution, slow down the ever growing human population, end destruction of forests and limit other serious threats to the natural dynamics of the Earth. They argue that we should change our lifestyle, consumer behaviour, travel habits. That we should switch to a flexible, receptive and sustainable society.

Others believe that the Earth is robust, that we can relax confidently in the fact that the Earth has the ability to absorb and adjust to the effects of human activities without serious side effects. They assure us that the combination of a resilient planet able to withstand various pressures and a creative human technology are a guarantee of survival. That global environmental change is just a passing phase, a journey to a better existence for all of the world’s inhabitants.

The debates between these two groups have generated much heat and little light. The Planet will present answers, trustworthy answers, to these questions.

The Planet was part of the touring film festival 'ueber Morgen'.

More information on the festival here>>

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