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Age of Stupid news
We had a really successful movie fundraiser earlier in the year when we hosted the Age of Stupid at the Bridgeway. Since then we have been receiving the director Franny Armstrong’s Age of Stupid updates. We liked this one so much (8 Dec 09) we thought we would post an edited version on our website.
Hello from the Climate Express, a special UN train trundling round Europe picking up TIPs* and taking them to the “most important meeting in human history” which, as we all know, starts in Copenhagen on Monday. Every carriage is packed full of people interviewing each other (see The Independent & New York Times), the outside is painted with climatastic sayings, every platform sign now includes a pun and the station announcers are having the best day of their working lives. Now I know what it feels like to be in Harry Potter.
Lizzie and I have squatted a first class carriage so people keep mistaking us for someone very important and bringing us coffees (in real, non-disposable cups) and briefing papers (printed double-sided on recycled paper). We’re screening Stupid in carriage 7 later tonight and then doing a press conference in the bar. Could be good. Meanwhile, Team StupidShow, are somewhere on the North Sea sorting through the biggest cable tangle known to mankind.
We’re shooting the first piece for the Stupid Show here on the train, though are slightly bemused at having to use a camera again after all these years. What were all those little buttons for again? Lizzie just bumped into Cristina from WWF Italy who have already organised more than 100 screenings in schools, town halls and local cinemas all around Italy. Apparently the film is very popular with teenagers who are “Very astonished” and then “Become thinking”.
On the telly
A couple of hundred people watching on a train is all well and good, but around 15-20 million will see the film during the next two weeks of Copenhagen as Stupid will be broadcast on primetime national TV in…. wait for it…. Finland (7th Dec, YLE), Norway (12th – NRK), Netherlands (14th – Nederland 2), Belgium (18th – VTM) and UK (14th – BBC4, 10pm). And then in the New Year it will be on in the USA, Canada, Greece, Cyprus and Poland. Plus, weirdly, Thailand and Israel, have already been and gone. Full TV listings: http://www.ageofstupid.net/tv
On the streets of Beijing
But forget the telly, we got news this week that we have seriously hit the big time. Yup, Stupid is the new hot seller pirate DVD on the streets of Beijing, where you can pick yourself up a copy for 7 yuan (about 75p). Haha. Check out the attached scan, kindly sent by Stupid researcher James who is out that way working on a new doc. Love the way they’ve taken the free poster from the website and not bothered to take off the “An Indie Screening” headline. Could cause a little confusion.
Better five years late than never
We are extremely excited – even by our extremely excitable standards – to say that, with no thanks to the Chinese pirate DVD, and almost exactly five years since the first 17 people invested in December 2004, the first funders payment will be winging its way into your bank accounts before Christmas. It’s not going to be a huuuuuuuuuuuge amount – don’t book those Caribbean flying holidays just yet – but it’s not nothing and it’s the first of ten yearly payments, so a moment’s reflection is called for methinks.
Thank you. All investors and crew should receive an email from our accountant Kevin Lyons at MKL checking your bank details in the next few days. If you haven’t heard by the end of this week, please contact him on Kevin.Lyons@mklp.co.uk to make sure you’re on the list.
And finally…. The Stupid Show
Lots more details of the Stupid Show following in the coming days, but the headline is that the first live show will be this Friday at 8pm Copenhagen time.
Gonna stop writing now as a rather tasty looking local, organic, vegetarian lunch has just been delivered to our table here on the Climate Express. Gotta love the low carbon future.
See you,
Franny & Lizzie
* Terribly important people
