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ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch

Third in a trilogy that includes Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Watermark (2013), the film follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group who, after nearly 10 years of research, are arguing that the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, because of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. From concrete seawalls in China that now cover 60% of the mainland coast, to the biggest terrestrial machines ever built in Germany, to psychedelic potash mines in Russia’s Ural Mountains, to metal festivals in the closed city of Norilsk, to the devastated Great Barrier Reef in Australia and surreal lithium evaporation ponds in the Atacama desert, the filmmakers have traversed the globe using high end production values and state of the art camera techniques to document evidence and experience of human planetary domination. At the intersection of art and science, ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch witnesses in an experiential and non-didactic sense a critical moment in geological history — bringing a provocative and unforgettable experience of our species’ breadth and impact.

Director:
Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, Nicholas de Pencier
Year:
2018
Country:
Canada
Genre:
Documentary
Duration:
87 minutes
Language:
English, Russian, Italian, German, Mandarin, Cantonese
Subtitles:
English & Romanian
Screening:
Sunday, 10 November, Cinema Elvire Popesco
Tickets

Awards and festivals:

Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary Award (Winner) (2019) Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards - Robert Brooks Award for Documentary Cinematography, Winner Best Documentary Cinematography (2019)