Green, like Kermit and grass.

I just returned from a screening of The Age of Stupid, part of the Festival International du Film d’environnement, a week-ish-long event in Paris (for you English-speakers, there’s a little British flag in the top right that translates the page to anglais).  I haven’t spent much time on this blog writing about “serious” topics, like the environment or sustainability.  That’s not necessarily because I don’t think about them, because I do, and certainly not because I know nothing about them, because 50% of my courses addressed sustainability at one point or another. But it just hasn’t come up recently.  That is, until now.

I saw an article in one of the Metro issues this week about the affair, and thought I’d give it a go.  I was particularly interested because I saw they were screening Food, Inc., a film I’ve been wanting to see for a while. More about that film in a minute, first I’d like to mention that they have screened (rather, will have screened) 100+ films during this event, documentaries and fiction, feature-length and shorts, all of which address our present and future as a species and a planet.  Basically, there’s something for everyone, even an animated film for the 4-8 year-old crowd.  Start ’em early.

I saw two of the films aired today, because they seemed the most interesting and happened to best fit my schedule (er, I wanted time to actually work on my grad school stuff today?).  The first was Food, Inc.

A smart farmer and giant corporations that mysteriously keep mum. What's not to like?

The title of the film is pretty accurate: it’s a documentary about how the source of our food has transitioned from small farms to big corporations, and the resulting mistreatment of the animals, workers and consumers.  But it’s not just another PETA film, though if you’re squeamish and like little chicks, you might want to cover your eyes for some bits. I was impressed with the film on a couple of points:

• Story-telling: the documentary interviews characters that are memorable and presents their stories in a compelling way.  One of the individuals, a farmer who grows free-range everything, from chickens to cows to pigs, and has an impressive vocabulary, is interviewed as he slaughters chickens and packages them for sale.  It’s all done in an open tent, and the farmer notes the irony that conducting this work in fresh air is considered dangerous by the FDA as it can lead to contamination of meat (through air-borne particles).  The film then goes on to remind the viewer of the previous interviewees, a chicken farmer who wore a mask to wade through a throng of hobbling hens to gather the ones that had died during the night.
• Art direction: the film is divided into chapters, of sorts, with catchy headings (that I can’t remember, but I remember they were catchy at the time) done in an artful way.  Oh, here’s an example: when talking about a veil concealing the source our food, the heading first reads “evil” then rearranges itself to “veil.” Subliminal? Not so much.  Point taken, though.
• Art direction 2: there are bits of the film that are animated, that read almost like graphics from WIRED, reworked in 3D and talking about food consumption rather than the next big gadget. I thought they did a good job integrating these animated bits into the overall visual and narrative fabric of the film.

The other film I watched, The Age of Stupid, is along the lines of The 11th Hour, or Al Gore’s little number, An Inconvenient Truth. Except instead of a straight-up documentary, the team uses a fictional narrative arc to tie the stories together.  An old man, in 2055, looks over “archival” footage from 2005-2008, pondering the inability of the human race to save itself from global warming, thus “committing suicide” and resulting in global devastation.  I found it a bit contrived, but I liked the stories the arc allowed the director to tell: an African village abandoned by Shell and its government, the “not in my backyard” approach of individuals to wind as a power-source, an 80+ year-old guide who still takes tourists and his grand-children for treks in the Alps, even as the glaciers are melting away…

Here's the old man, and the images on the screen are the contrived plot. But the point of the film is a good one...

Perhaps more interesting than the film itself was the information I gleamed from the Q&A with the director and producer after the screening.  One of the question-askers noted the film was quite alarmist, at a time when the public is being bombarded with “be green or be dead” propaganda, and asked the director why she didn’t take a more gentle approach.  The director, Franny Armstrong, noted that they had considered two endings, a positive end, where humans fix the problem, and a negative end, where they don’t. They decided to keep the “nightmare” approach, as opposed to the “I have a dream” approach, because, in the director’s words, “We’re not at a crossroads, we’re at a point, on a path we’ve been on for over 100 years.  We’ve got to turn the whole ship around.”

I even got to ask a question. I was curious, since the film included documentary footage from around the world (Mumbai, New Orleans, the Alps, England, Africa) and spoke specifically about the large amount of emissions made by the airline industry, how the crew kept their carbon footprint low while filming.  The producer answered my question, saying they commuted using trains as much as possible (flying as little as possible), used eco-friendly supplies in the office, were all vegetarian, etc.  For the film’s premiere, they hosted a multi-national satellite event, based in London. Celebrities arrived on bike or in electric cars and walked down a “green carpet” to the screening area, where the projections were all powered by renewable resources. It was the largest film premiere in history, and it produced only 1% of the emissions you’d expect from a Hollywood-sized premiere.

Their approach to marketing and production is quite interesting, too.  Each crew member (104 total) took a pay-cut in order to invest themselves in the film, thus earning a profit as the film earns profit, and not limiting the film’s circulation through contractual means.  To further increase circulation opportunities, the film is available for private/public screenings: that is, whoever you are, you can have a screening whenever and where-ever you want, and keep your profits. Of course, you pay a base fee for the rights to screen the film…but it’s for a good cause?  If you’re interested, check it out: http://www.indiescreenings.net/.

Well, that’s my “important topic” for the month. Don’t expect the next blog entry to be so serious – I’ve got to tell you about my afternoon with Bob l’Eponge.

P.S. Did I mention this whole festival was free, one of many free film festivals in Paris over the course of the year, in fact? I love it when a government puts money towards cultural enrichment and public education. Of course, the people that need to be convinced about the importance of sustaining our environment probably didn’t come.

Filed under: Around the world, Close to home, In the news, consumerism, environment, farming, films, food, France, global warming, Inc., International Environmental Film Festival, Paris, PETA, sustainability, The Age of Stupid

Daddy, I want a pony.

References to Willy Wonka aside, I spent Sunday afternoon at the races.  Not betting, mind you, particularly because every horse I pegged a winner in my mind wound up in the bottom third in the actual race, and an assistante‘s salary is not one that would have survived that string of bad luck. It was a bit more fun, in a way, because I didn’t have anything riding on a race, and could root for the winner regardless of who it was – and feel equally sorry for all the losers.

Wait, what races? One of the most prestigious horse races in Europe: the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. One of the assistants got free tickets, and I tagged along.  It was quite the afternoon.  We packed our lunches and headed to the Bois de Boulogne, to the Longchamp racecourse. The actual races, there were 8+, I believe, lasted all afternoon and into early evening; the Arc is the best known, and was #6, so we stayed until then and called it quits.

The races work like this: you sit, sit, sit for about 30 minutes, then you stand, for the 2 minutes the horses dash across the track, then you sit some more until the next race is run. It’s quite like that scene from My Fair Lady…hats and dolled up ladies included. Some of the hats were quite ridiculous. We saw everything you can imagine, from a weird vertically triangular purple number to a collection of spindly feathered black wires seemingly stapled to another biddy’s head. Unfortunately, my camera is back on the fritz so I was unable to take any images. The assistant who invited me has posted some on Facebook and gave me permission to use those (thanks!) so here you go:

Three assistants, sans hats, at the races.

I thought we were in Paris...I guess I was wrong?

That feathery thing in the background is a hat, and it seems like they're indoctrinating them at a young age these days (see foreground, left).

I can't remember what race, or what (strange) name these guys have, but here are some horses.

In other news, I met my first private pupil Monday evening. He seems like a nice enough bloke, a twenty-something software engineer who speaks a little English and takes notes religiously. We grabbed a coffee at a cafe near le  Panthéon and he was gracious enough to pay for my drink as well as the lesson. I reckon the next coffee is on me. He wants two lessons a week so that should work out well enough. I have another rendez-vous with a potential student on the 18th, hopefully that pans out as well. That leaves 7ish more lessons to find, if I plan on paying for my traveling habit without making a major dent in my savings.

And if you thought that was all the news I could possible have, it wasn’t. I now have a tentative schedule: I should be working Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (1/2 day, I think), which gives me a beautiful 3(and 1/2)-day weekend and the potential for babysitting jobs on Wednesdays…pas trop mal!

Filed under: All things French, Around the world, In the news, Bois de Boulogne, France, hats, horseraces, Paris, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, schedule, students, teaching

Love is in the Argentinian air…

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford: love affairs aren't affairs of the state until you peace out on the job.

It never ceases to amuse me that the private lives of individuals (involved in politics or otherwise) are considered newsworthy.  I’m generally of the opinion that if they’re doing their job, what they do outside of work hours is their own business, especially when it comes to politics.  That’s something I learned from the French.  Sarkozy’s affair with Bruni: gossip, for sure; front-page news, not necessarily.  Britney and whoever she’s with now can go about their business, as long as she keeps making crappy music that someone will buy.

The most recent news story, on the other hand, is a matter of affairs of the heart interfering with affairs of the state.  Gov. Sanford’s six-day absence “hiking on the trail” (er, that’s a euphemism I’ve never heard before) would be private business, in my book, if it weren’t for the fact that he’s a Governor, with a job to do.  He didn’t exactly take a paid vacation, or even sick days. He told his staff where he was going (hiking up the AT), but then ran in the opposite direction (almost literally – if you’re savvy enough with a compass to hike the AT, surely you’d recognize that your plane is flying south.) That’s not cool, to say the least. What if they had to reach him on an emergency? What if he had to be present in SC for a state crises?

I know he has staff, and I know that the world did not end because he left.  But no one else in the working world takes a week off with no notice and doesn’t have to deal with the repercussions of their actions.  Most certainly, no one in a position with that level of authority.  With great power comes great responsibility, and his responsibility to his position is to not lie to his constituents, not lie to his staff, and be available in emergencies.  All three of which were left unfulfilled on his little trip.

Most people (i.e. those talking about it on the Today show, or on the local radio) are up in arms over another politician cheating on his wife and are calling for his resignation.  Ok, that’s fine, you can believe that morally he’s in the wrong.  But what he should resign for is the fact that he didn’t do his job. Not because he was a terrible father (really, having a love affair on Father’s Day?!), not because he made a bad decision when it comes to his marriage, but because he was unable to fulfill his gubernatorial obligations during his absence.

In his press conference he appologizes to letting down his wife and family and to the “people of faith across South Carolina” because of bad moral judgement.  I don’t care about your moral judgement.  Sure, you’re a role model, and no, I wouldn’t want my kids to follow your steps when it comes to making extramarital experiments, but there are other role models out there to whom my kids could turn, and there’s currently (as far as I’m aware) only one Governor of South Carolina.

So here’s my request to both politicians and the media: If a politican’s hanky-panky doesn’t affect his ability to fulfill his job-related obligations, then leave him be; nobody wants their dirty laundry aired in public, and if he’s truly sorry for his actions, he’ll appologize to the people he hurt and won’t let it affect his job-related obligations.  Don’t give a press conference on what you’ve been up to in the sack, we don’t care.  Do give a press conference on what you have and haven’t been up to on the job – that’s our business.

Filed under: In the news, affairs, Mark Sanford, media, news, politicians, politics, South Carolina Governor