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michaelf876
Reviews
Seed: The Untold Story (2016)
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Seed turned out to be a great movie. Coming into it I did not really know what to expect for the duration of the movie but came away from it a much more knowledgeable citizen on a really important and overlooked issue. I knew some of the things that some people might have been shocked to learn, for instance the mass suicides of farmers in India but I didn't know the whole picture, history and scope of the problem. I didn't know we lost so much that nature and evolution gave us (humans and animals), permanently gone. It was quite shocking to learn. I did not know much of the legalities and history that shaped what has transpired to bring us to the present situation. This movie I feel actually helps me to see this class and environmental law's importance more clearly. It (environmental law) is so important in shaping society. It really should not be hard to see for me: I took Geography 102 from Barney Warf where he repeatedly emphasizes that space (the environment) is intricately/interrelated (linked) to time and obviously us, and we are in turn influenced by it, in our culture, beliefs, distribution, etc. That is not hyperbole, it is the truth. On that note, I think the movie does a good job of not trying to depict itself as overly important or epic in importance. It doesn't need to as it seems to just give the audience the information (from a more environmental viewpoint, but like I said earlier, the environment is the whole biosphere (or ecosphere if you want) of the earth from our human point of view) and let them form their own opinions but mostly just getting people interested and more knowledgeable on the subject, which is exactly what is needed.
This Changes Everything (2015)
Capitalism is....
This Changes Everything – Film Review by Michael Folk
"This Changes Everything" the film tries to make a case that climate change presents an opportunity to change the dominant economic system to something better for the average person on the Earth (like the book). The film starts very well and promisingly but I feel does make a bit of a blunder with its first stop where it follows a Native American woman from Canada being affected by the Alberta tar sands. That was an okay piece but nothing that inspires one to take up arms against the government or anything, it goes on a bit too long and becomes a bit too personal in my opinion as these native Americans are seen driving large trucks and talk of hunting and fishing the land (exploitation to another degree, but if all meat eaters did it, would still be ecologically disastrous). I like the rest of the stories better such as the struggle in Greece, India and China's rise only to be smitten with smog and their subsequent actions of leading the world on solar power. Eventually she presents the idea that this presents an opportunity for people to change the current socio-economic system. I personally love the idea and think she is right but the overall case she presents is a little bit weak, but still, it's not bad my any means and does inspire action.
The writing is good (of course) and the film is very easy on the eyes with nice graphics when it uses them. Along with other films (I really like "Terra" a Spanish language movie on Netflix about ultimately vegetarianism and wilderness, but showing geologically how and why (pretty quickly) things are and humans impact on the earth since the industrial revolution etc.) and choice books like her own (explains things like free trade deals better than the movie), Jared Diamond's "Collapse", Elizabeth Kolbert's "The Sixth Extinction" and others, and knowledge of climate change I feel it is a great time for humanity to be asking these questions but the mainstream media and mainstream America and other Western countries majority I just don't think enough people would be on board. Grassroot movements for plain good old democracy (democracy spring) don't seem to be doing all that much because the media largely ignores, so the effort seems futile while people have jobs and school they are largely too busy to go to or hear about these efforts and issues. It's a sad state of affairs really that I myself struggle with but I myself, just have to try and stay busy as well and not think about it too much and try to do what I can and spread knowledge
300+ million years of evolution and such a nice fairly friendly, beautiful world and we are kind of just ruining it so much in such a short amount of time (and for what? I view it as mostly bad luck that science was in such an infancy state before capitalism and the industrial revolution and how quickly things progressed but if we were a smarter species we would have acted more rapidly to mitigate damages but the point is one can think about alternate histories that could easily have been better).
With all that said the film does end up being pretty powerful and gets people to question and think for themselves (what really is the value of gold really? versus clean water, healthy soil (food) and air, gold means nothing).