Saturday Night At The Movies

SIFF-ting Through Celluloid-Part 4

By Dennis Hartley

I am continuing my series on a few of the highlights from the 2007 Seattle International Film Festival, which ran nearly 400 features, documentaries and shorts this year.

This week we’re looking at a powerful new Scandinavian documentary, “The Planet”.

The “planet” in question would be the Earth. The issue would be how we are methodically destroying it. Now, I know what you’re flashing on (and it has something to do with a former VP, PowerPoint presentations and a Melissa Etheridge song, right?).

Yes, directors Johan Soderberg and Michael Stenberg do trod upon much of the same ground that was covered in “An Inconvenient Truth”, but speaking from a purely cinematic viewpoint, I would have to say they execute their message in a less prosaic, more attention-grabbing manner.(Before I get jumped in an alley, let me say that I would recommend “An Inconvenient Truth” to strangers on the street, it is an important film, and Al Gore is a sincere and passionate crusader, but there is something about the man’s languid drawl that lulls me into a drowsy state of alpha. But that’s my personal problem.)

“The Planet” appears to take some visual inspiration from Godfrey Reggio’s classic observation on the global environmental zeitgeist, “Koyaanisqatsi ” and mixes it up with sobering commentary from environmentalists, scientists and academics.

The visuals are quite stunning, yet simultaneously distressing. Zebras and gazelles graze against the backdrop of a modern urban skyline, whilst a renowned wildlife photographer reminds us in voiceover that all those documentaries depicting boundless expanses of habitat untouched by human encroachment are just so much puerile fantasy. Kind of takes all the joy out of watching “Planet Earth” on Discovery HD Theater, doesn’t it?

One of the more chilling observations comes from geography professor Jared Diamond, who makes a convincing case citing Easter Island’s man-made and irretrievable ecological devastation as a microcosm of what is now occurring to the planet as a whole.

And it gets even better (er-don’t ask me about what could be happening as early as 2010).

The interviewees are all insightful, and they certainly pull no punches (viewing this film may be traumatic for depressives and those who have empathic tendencies). In a nutshell? If we don’t change our present course, we’re fucked. And it will not be cinematic.

This island earth: An Inconvenient Truth, Koyaanisqatsi , Powaqqatsi , Naqoyqatsi, Baraka, Sans Soleil.

Unnatural resources: Silent Running, Soylent Green, Godzilla VS the Smog Monster, The Day After Tomorrow , Nausicaa Valley Of The Winds,Princess Mononoke.

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