Landmark Moment: We have our own geologic period. But it’s nothing to be proud of

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo | Planet S Magazine

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
Roxy Theatre
Opens Friday 26

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is more than a film. It’s part of a larger project that includes art exhibitions, virtual and augmented reality, a coffee table book with photographs and essays by filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky and Nicolas de Pencier (along with fresh work from Margaret Atwood), and an educational program that will take the film’s message to schools across Canada and possibly beyond.

The project illustrates the conclusions of the Anthropocene Working Group, an international body of scientists that argues humanity, as a species, has become so advanced technologically that we now operate as a geological force inflicting permanent change on our planet.

Narrated by Alicia Vikander, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch captures many breathtaking sequences: a picturesque German town destroyed to allow a coal mine’s growth; a marble pit in Tuscany, used to produce countless knock-off Roman sculptures; a pile of tusks set on fire in Kenya to deter poachers. All indicators of distress.

I interviewed Baichwal, Burtynsky and de Pencier at the Toronto International Film Festival. They don’t finish each other sentences, but come damn close.

Read the interview here.