NEWS HUB

'Anthropocene' Documentary Shows How Humans Are Wreaking Havoc On The Planet

By Brooke Shuman
Huffington Post

“Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” a documentary by filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and photographer Edward Burtynsky, is a nature story gone awry, a dazzling and at times nauseating document of the far-reaching, and possibly catastrophic, impact that humans have had on the planet.

The film gets its title from the geological term “Anthropocene,” which was first coined in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen and ecologist Eugene Stoermer. In 2016, a group of geologists called the Anthropocene Working Group proposed that our planet has recently been so drastically altered by human activity that we are now living in a distinct geological era. (That’s why it’s called the Anthro-pocene, because humans made it.) Humans had been getting by in the Holocene epoch for 11,000 years since the last glacial age, but the Anthropocene Working Group claims that through farming, industrialization, massive excavation of minerals and the dumping of ton after ton of trash, we’ve created a new geological era.

Read the full article here.

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch | Inside the Documentary

Popcorn Talk

Join Frank Moran as he interviews filmmakers: Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky.

“Anthropocene” is defined as the current geological epoch in which humans are the primary cause of permanent planetary change. The upcoming documentary ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch is unflinching in its depiction of the destruction of the natural world, using extraordinary imagery from celebrated photographer Edward Burtynsky, who directed the film with Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier.

Watch the interview here.

The Wonders and Terrors of Humanity’s Impact on Earth

By Laura Leavitt
Hyperallergic

Featuring stunning landscape photography, the documentary Anthropocene surveys a new era of human-driven geology.

The cult film Koyaanisqatsi, named after the Hopi idea of “life lived out of balance,” contains no dialogue, but rather scenes all over the world — of cities, nature, the tiniest industrially produced products, and the vastness of canyons. It’s experienced more as a guided meditation than a linear story. I thought of it when watching the new documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch. It follows the research of the Anthropocene Working Group, whose members believe that the Holocene geological epoch concluded around the middle of the 20th century. In its place is the Anthropocene, characterized by the way that humans shape Earth’s landscapes.

Read the full article here.

Review: ‘Anthropocene: The Human Epoch’ delivers a powerful warning of a world in decline

By Robert Abele
Los Angeles Times

A movie thousands of years in the making, “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” takes cameras to where our consumptive need has most alarmingly re-engineered the planet. It’s also, in many ways, a document of a spiritual/environmental undoing.

Filming across a dozen countries, Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky continue the visual breadth of their previously observed warning shots about the scope of progress (“Manufactured Landscapes,” “Watermark”) with a reflective tour of excavation, industry and decimation that argues we’ve already moved into a new geological epoch owned entirely by us.

Dotted with alarming facts delivered in gravely intoned voice-over by Alicia Vikander, “Anthropocene” finds the terrible awe in town-destroying terraforming projects in Germany worked by earthmovers of “Mad Max”-like magnitude, the sweeping wretchedness of a city-sized African landfill scavenged by thousands of the poor working alongside sickly looking pelicans, and what the acid-caused bleaching of coral reefs looks like via time lapse photography.

Read the full review here.

‘Anthropocene: The Human Epoch’ Review: Global Warnings

By Ben Kenigsberg
The New York Times

“Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” puts a frightening twist on the standard nature documentary. Rather than exalting the awesome beauty of landscapes or animals, it captures alarming ways in which that beauty has been disturbed.

The movie takes its cues from the research of the Anthropocene Working Group, a team of scientists who in 2016 recommended a formal declaration of the end of Earth’s Holocene epoch, which began as many as 12,000 years ago. They argued that we are now in a new geologic phase, the Anthropocene epoch — a time when humans now change the Earth more than all the planet’s natural processes combined.

The film, part of a multidisciplinary project by Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky, hops from continent to continent to depict the scale of those disruptions, which at times have an almost science fiction quality.

Read the full review here.

The Photographer Capturing Mankind's Impact on Planet Earth

Video by Heather Sharpe and Laura Foster
BBC News

Edward Burtynsky travels the world trying to capture striking images of humanity's impact on the planet, from the fossil-like shapes left behind by drills in a Potash mine to the luminescent colours of lithium ponds.

The Canadian photographic artist has spent 40 years focusing on large-scale human activities such as mining, quarrying, agriculture and deforestation - but he says he doesn't see himself as an environmentalist.

His latest project, Anthropocene, is a collaboration with film-makers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, exploring the idea proposed by some scientists that a geological epoch shaped by human activity has begun.

It includes a travelling exhibition, a book and feature-length documentary, which was premiered last year in Canada and goes on theatrical release in the US next week.

Watch the video here.

Dramatic Photos Capture How Humans Have Changed the Earth

By Peter Carbonera | Newsweek

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is a documentary film by Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier that paints a beautiful and terrifying picture of what human beings are doing to the Earth.

Since the early 1980s Burtynsky, a Canadian photographer, has been documenting what he calls "intentional landscapes," the big and lasting marks that human activities like mining and farming are making on the planet. The film is the third collaboration between Burtynsky and documentary filmmakers Baichwal and de Pencier—the first was Manufactured Landscapes (2006) followed by Watermark (2013)—and is a companion to a coffee-table book of large photographs and a touring museum exhibit. The documentary opened in the United States on September 25.

The title comes from a word used by some geologists to describe the period of natural history we are all living in right now. It was popularized by Paul Crutzen, a Dutch Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist who has studied climate change. During the 1980s, Burtynsky says, Crutzen realized, "We as a species have for the first time been such a force on the planet that we have moved it from one geological epoch to another. We have now created a footprint that has left its signature in the future strata of the planet so geologists a million years from now if they dig something up they'll say, 'This is from the anthropocene, when humans on the planet were the dominant species.'"

Read the full article here.

ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch Nominated for Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary

Canadian Newswire

TORONTO, Sept. 12, 2019 /CNW/ - The DGC is pleased to announce the full 2019 DGC Awards nominees for Feature Film, Documentary, Short Film, Television Series, and Movies for Television and Mini-Series. Selected from over 300 submissions, the nominees represent a spectrum of talent, genres and diversity in the screen-based industry.

The Awards will be presented at the annual DGC Awards Gala on Saturday, October 26, 2019 at The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.

"Each year, our feature film submissions are more and more impressive than the last," said DGC President Tim Southam. "This work is a reminder that Canadian talent and production are second to none."

Read the full release here.

This stunning new film captures how humans have reshaped every part of the Earth

By Eillie Anzilotti
Fast Company

The new documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch doesn’t waste any time getting to the point: For the first minute of the film, all we see are flames. It’s mesmerizing, in a way, the same way that a fire burning in a hearth on a cold night inevitably draws our gaze. But this blaze is underpinned with a sense of horror: In the last few seconds before the scene cuts, we see that it’s burning something—it’s hard to tell what, but we know it’s important, and we know that it’s something to do with our collective future that we’re ruining.

“Anthropocene,” after all, is the proposed name for a new geological epoch that humanity has created by the changes and destruction we’ve wrought on the planet. “Humans now change the Earth and its systems more than all natural processes combined,” narrates actor Alicia Vikander at the documentary’s beginning. The film, which will be released on September 25 and which was directed by photographer Edward Burtynsky along with Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier—whose workon the same subject inspired the movie—traces the scope of human ambition and its consequences across the globe.

Read the full article here.

Kino Lorber Teams With Kanopy For Special Theatrical Run Of Climate Change Docu ‘Anthropocene: The Human Epoch’

By Dino-Ray Ramos
Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: The climate change documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is just as much a visual marvel as it is a call to action. Kino Lorber is partnering with the streaming platform Kanopy to bring the feature docu to over 100 theaters nationwide on September 25 to coincide with the U.N. Climate Action Summit and Climate Week NYC in an effort to combat man-made climate change. In addition, Anthropocene will be available for streaming on Kanopy starting January 1, 2020.

From Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky, the docu is narrated by Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander and screened at Sundance, Berlin and the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. Taking four years to make, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group which, after nearly 10 years of research, is investigating how the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century as a result of the profound and lasting changes humankind has made to the Earth. The film traverses the globe using state of the art camera techniques to document the evidence and experience of human planetary domination. At the intersection of art and science, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch witnesses a critical moment in geological history — bringing a provocative and unforgettable experience of our species’ breadth and impact.

Read the full article here.

Oh Dear: Photos Show What Humans Have Done To The Planet

By Jonathan Lambert and Rebecca Ellis
NPR

Humans have made an indelible mark on the planet. Since the mid-20th century, we've accelerated the digging of mines, construction of dams, expansion of cities and clearing of forests for agriculture — activity that will be visible in the geological record for eons to come.

Some scientists are calling it the Anthropocene era, or the age of the humans ("anthropos" is Greek for human).

Photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier were inspired by this ongoing discussion of the debate over this new geological era. These three Canadian artists traveled to 22 countries to research and document "places of obvious, physical human incursions on the landscape," says filmmaker de Pencier.

Read the full article here.

‘Anthropocene’ Tops Canadian Screen Award Doc Winners

By Pat Mullen
Point of View Magazine

Jennifer Baichwal, Nick de Pencier, and Ed Burtynsky are triple crown winners! The team scored its third win from the Canadian Academy when Anthropocene: The Human Epoch took the Ted Rogers Award for Best Documentary Feature at last night’s Canadian Screen Awards. The filmmakers previously won the Genie for 2006’s Manufactured Landscapes and the CSAfor 2013’s Watermark, making them unstoppable for their landmark environmental trilogy. Anthropocene also won the doc prize for Best Cinematography for de Pencier at yesterday’s awards. The win caps off a remarkable run for Anthropocene on the Canadian circuit, which included a spot on Canada’s Top Ten and the Rogers Award for Best Canadian Feature from the Toronto Film Critics Association. (Read more about Anthropocene in this profile from TIFF.)

Read the full article here.

'Anthropocene' Introduces the Darkest Man-Made Wonders of the World

By Luke Hicks
Nonfics

Astonishment. Pure, lurid, ravishing, genuine astonishment. That is Anthropocene: The Human Epoch. At times, you have to quadruple take, and what you’re looking at still doesn’t fully click. It’s so impossible to comprehend yet such a significant achievement in scientific study and documentary storytelling. Its story is massive in scope. On the short end, it covers 10 millennia, the span of human history. On the long end, it spans 4.5 billion years, the duration of the Earth.

“Anthropocene” refers to the recently coined epoch that many distinguished geologists and scientists believe we have entered as a result of the human manipulation of the Earth and its resources. Technically, as far as the official Geological Time Scale is concerned, the Anthropocene Epoch has not been legitimized. But, as you can imagine, it takes a little while to prove that the geological conditions and processes of the Earth have been altered enough to warrant official worldwide identification and confirmation of our current time interval.

Read the full review here.

Berlin Fest’s ‘Anthropocene’ Looks at Human Impact on the Environment

By Nick Clement
Variety

The documentary “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,” which screens as a Berlinale Special, exists as one part of a multimedia project, conceived by a trio of passionate and dedicated filmmakers: Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky. The Canadian production enlisted Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander for voice-over duties and serves as one component of a vast spread of multimedia disciplines, with all efforts exploring the intense impact that humans have made on the Earth, in any number of geological ways.

Read the full article here.

A man-made landscape is writ large on the screen in Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

By David D'Arcy
The Art Newspaper

After its US premier at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, the visually stunning documentary heads to Berlin

The deep brown curves of a strip mine in New Mexico seem like contours of a woven carpet. So do the rows of a palm oil plantation in Borneo alongside a lush green rainforest. A vast garbage dump in Kenya has its own luminous topography, with plastic gleaming like jewelled inlay. Like glowing flows of molten lava, these and the many manmade environments observed in the film Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, which premiered at Sundance, are no less troubling for their eerie allure. Nature isn’t what it used to be.

Read the full article here.

Berlin According to Documentarian Edward Burtynsky

By Etan Vlessing
The Hollywood Reporter

A world-renowned still photographer, Burtynsky returns to the fest as co-director of 'Anthropocene: The Human Epoch,' a documentary about humankind's harmful impact on the environment.

Favorite Berlin moment?

I spent a day with an incredible tour guide. This was in advance of a shoot I was doing for the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa. We toured the Libeskind-designed Jewish Museum, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Track 17 Memorial and a number of other moving sites.

Read the full interview here.

Alicia Vikander-Narrated Climate Change Doc ‘Anthropocene’ Nabbed by Kino Lorber

By Etan Vlessing
Hollywood Reporter

The Canadian film, by directors Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky, is set for a September theatrical release.

The Canadian documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, narrated by Oscar winner Alicia Vikander, has had its U.S. rights nabbed by Kino Lorber.

The climate change film that explores the human impact on our planet debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival before a recent screening at Sundance and ahead of a European premiere in Berlin. Kino Lorber plans a September theatrical release to coincide with the UN Climate Change Summit 2019.

Read the full article here.

Seville International licences ‘Anthropocene: The Human Epoch’ to Kino Lorber (exclusive)

By Jeremy Kay
Screen Daily

Seville International announced from Sundance on Tuesday (29) it has licensed US rights on Anthropocene: The Human Epoch to Kino Lorber and struck key additional international sales.

The documentary from Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky is the first acquisition by Kino Lorber in association with Kanopy, the free streaming platform available to college students and professors, and public library members across the US.

Read the full release here.

“Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” Beautifully portrays the horrors of man’s new era

By Pamela Powell
Reel Honest Reviews

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” is the third film by Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky to address the environment, preceded by “Manufactured Landscapes” (2006) and “Watermark” (2013). The film, narrated in layman’s terms by Alicia Vikander, gives us a stunning visual education of our current world’s state as we leave behind the Halocene Era, one which nature provides changes, to the Anthropocene Era, where man is responsible for all of them.

Read the full review here.

“I was Amazed That We Got Permission to Film in Russia”: Directors Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky | Anthropocene – The Human Epoch

Filmmaker Magazine

Whenever directors watch their own films, they always do so with the knowledge that there are moments that occurred during their production — whether that’s in the financing and development or shooting or post — that required incredible ingenuity, skill, planning or just plain luck, but whose difficulty is invisible to most spectators. These are the moments directors are often the most proud of, and that pride comes with the knowledge that no one on the outside could ever properly appreciate what went into them.

So, we ask: “What hidden part of your film are you most privately proud of and why?”

The scenes in the film from Norilsk and Berezniki in Russia have particular resonance for us, for a number of reasons.

I was amazed that we got permission to film in Russia. All our research indicated that it’s never been harder to get a North American camera crew into the country since the Cold War. And we were pushing it even more by trying to get into underground mines in the Ural mountains and into the “closed city” of Norilsk. To film in the subterranean, psychedelic potash mines, the tunnels of which span over 3,000 kilometers, we needed an invitation from the mining company. Norilsk, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, is a one company town of around 175,000 people. It has the largest colored metal mine (chances are your cellphone has palladium in it from Norilsk) and heavy metals smelting complex in the world, and is one of its most polluted cities. There is no road or rail access. Because of its strategic importance and gulag forced-labor history, even Russian citizens need special permission to go there. It took a long time to process the visas and I felt the odds were insurmountably against us, and that we were just going through the motions to say we had tried. Then one day they arrived. Incredible. — Nicholas de Pencier

Read the full article here.