It’s the year 2055 and the world has been ravaged by climate change. London is underwater, Sydney is on fire and nuclear war has turned India into a wasteland. An archivist looks back at old footage from the year 2008 to understand why humankind failed to address climate change. From the director of McLibel and starring Pete Postlethwaite, this bold, provocative film warns of the dire consequences of our failure to stop climate change.
Drama-documentary-animation hybrid starring Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, watching archive footage from 2008 and asking why climate change wasn’t stopped before it was too late.
The Age of Stupid is a 2009 British docufiction film directed by Franny Armstrong, with first-time producer Lizzie Gillett. The executive producer is John Battsek. The film is a drama–documentary–animation hybrid. It combines documentary footage from 2008 with Pete Postlethwaite portraying a man living alone in a devastated world of 2055, who asks “Why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?”
The makers of The Age of Stupid were among the first to use the crowdfunding model and pioneered a new distribution system, Indie Screenings. It premiered simultaneously on 62 screens across the UK in March 2009, making it a record holder for the largest ever film premiere. Critical reception was generally positive, with reviews commending its message and format.