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.
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Read MoreBy 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.
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Read MoreBy 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.
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Read MoreBy 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.
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Read MoreBy 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.
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