“As I became aware of the mounting global water crisis, I realized that it represented a clash of cultures – between a culture that values water as a shared sacred source of all life and a corporate culture that regards water as a commodity to be bought and sold.”

Quote from Shalini Kantayya, director of A Drop of Life – a futuristic sci-fi flick about the mounting water crisis winning Best Short Film at Palm Beach International as well as the Audience Choice Award at the IUOW Film competition. Will check it out some time (two years late anyway).

“Who controls water controls life”

This past week the non-profit film HOME was released in every format, including in movie theaters, on television, DVD/Blu-ray Disc and the internet, on the same day in over 50 countries in an effort to spread its message to the widest audience possible.

“We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate”, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, director and photographer of the film, said.

“The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.”

HOME is directed by the internationally renowned French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, produced the famous director Luc Besson and narrated by five-time Academy Award nominee Glenn Close (Dangerous Liaisons).

The film is shot in high definition in 54 countries and 120 locations over 217 days and will use a “first-time ever all-aerial filming style” highlighting “the Earth’s wonders as well as its wounds and provides a necessary perspective to approach the changing environment”.

Home will be available on DVD for $19.98. But you can watch it for free in high definition over at YouTube.

It’s an amazingly beautiful and yet scary documentary about our home. It sort of reminds me about the Swedish documentary “The Planet” but with fewer facts. Watch it!

Also watch: The Age of Stupid

Yesterday the new climate change movie “The Age of Stupid” had premiere in the UK. The movie stars Pete Postlethwaite as an archivist in the devastated world of the future, asking the question: “Why didn’t we stop climate change when we still had the chance?” He looks back on footage of real people around the world in the years leading up to 2015 before runaway climate change took place.

The movie has already received positive reviews in the press and celebrities, politicians and environmentalists have all praised it. The Guardian has said the movie is “fascinating”. And that “the message, never stated but constantly emerging, is that we all have our self-justifying myths. These myths prevent us from engaging with climate change.” The New Statesman says the movie is “anything but a good-guys-versus-bad-guys polemic. It is angry but nuanced, despairing but strangely motivating.”

Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London have praised the movie and said that “every single person in the country should be forcibly made to watch this film”. George Monbiot, Britain’s leading green commentator, has said that “it is a captivating and constantly surprising film: the first successful dramatisation of climate change to reach the big screen”.

I am definitely looking forward to watch this movie. Maybe. Just maybe it will be better than Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. What do you think?

Watch the Trailer:

The Age of Stupid: final trailer, Feb 2009 HD from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

The movie is directed by Franny Armstrong, produced by John Battsek and will be released in UK cinemas on 20 March 2009, followed by other countries. The movie will be followed by a “Not Stupid” campaign that will help put “serious pressure on the decision makers at Copenhagen in December”.