Hello or Goodbye

Location | Mood | Date 2 October 2008
Author (full name): 
Franny and Lizzie
Date: 
2 October 2008

Hello,

This is the first message on our bumper, all-inclusive Spanner Films meets Age of Stupid meets McLibel meets Everyone We Ever Met mailing list. If you'd signed up to any of the other lists, you'll no longer be bothered by them, just this one. And if you want to get the hell off, the unsubscribing info is hopefully at the bottom of the message. Apologies if the formatting is horrible or the attachments non-attaching, we're working on it.

So, we finished our four-year climate change epic, now called The Age of Stupid. The film will be out in the next few months - more details any day, as soon as the deals are signed - but the first reactions have been genuinely astounding:
- Here's a load of people crying after the crew screening:
http://www.oneclimate.net/2008/05/25/major-climate-documentary-launches/
- and some of the written feedback:
http://www.crudemovie.net/news/kick_balls_hug

- And all the other Stupid news:
http://www.ageofstupid.net/view/news

Fundraising evening for Luharia's village:
http://www.spannerfilms.net/images/drownedout/drownedout_fundraiser.jpg
The villagers who starred in our Indian documentary, Drowned Out, are in desperate need of cash as they are now living in complete destitution. So we're holding a fundraising screening at the Inspiral Lounge, 250 Camden High St, London on Monday 15th September at 8pm. There will be a video link-up with Luharia, the main character in the film, live from India, who will explain exactly what they need the cash for: as far as we've understood so far on terrible phonelines, the priorities are a boat and some water pumps. The flyer should hopefully be attached to this message, so please forward it to anyone you know who might be interested. If you can't come, you can donate cash through the website: http://www.spannerfilms.net/?lid=354

SWOTS this weekend:
/?lid=1029
There's two places left on our filmmaking course this coming Saturday and Sunday: "Everything you need to know to make independent documentaries with no commision, crew or contacts... and still get 55 million viewers."

NGOs and STUPID this Thursday:
We're having a screening and brainstorming session for NGOs working on climate change this Thursday morning in Central London. The idea is to work out how best to use the film to support their campaigns. There's still some seats left, so if you are an NGO/union/charity who'd like to come, please contact us on hello@ageofstupid.net

STUPID at Parliament: 7 MPs, 2 Lords, 1 Baroness, 1 (former) Deputy Mayor, 1 Party Leader and 1 movie star
http://crudemovie.net/news/7_mps_2_lords_1_baroness_1_former_deputy_mayo...
The UK's ground-breaking Climate Bill is going through its final stages and will become law next year. So we screened the film to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change in the hope of persuading them to make the bill as strong as the science says it needs to be.

"Spielberg eat your heart out"
http://www.oneclimate.net/2008/08/08/pete-postlethwaite-at-the-movies-2/
Actor Pete Postlethwaite (one of the stars of The Age of Stupid) watched the film for the first time and gave us his feedback.

Filming us filming him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPIY7SrKdsg
Not sure that someone making a film is really news, but we're not complaining about eight minutes on primetime Channel 4 news.

Lizzie on the news:
http://3news.co.nz/Video/Politics/tabid/370/articleID/69350/cat/61/Defau...
Age of Stupid producer, Lizzie Gillett, held a private screening of Stupid last week, to help drum up ex-pat votes for the New Zealand greens... and then only went and ended up on the main TV news.

That's all for now, but there's tonnes happening and we'll start sending regularly news on this list now we've got it organised (thanks Tim and Pete and Garrett).

Hope all's well with you, apart from the upcoming apocalypse thing,

Franny & Lizzie
Spanner Films
http://www.ageofstupid.net