A life-changing film
Last Friday I published a Post under the title of The power of truth. Just 5 minutes long, the YouTube video was powerful, starkly so. I wrote at the end of that article, “The principal source for the footage was Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s incredible film HOME.”
Jean and I watched Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s film last Friday night and to say that we were moved would be pitiful compared to the emotional impact it really had. Take a look at the film trailer; it’s a little over 3 1/2 minutes long. (But please don’t use that as a substitute for watching the full film, see below!)
Home is a 2009 documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The film is entirely composed of aerial shots of various places around Earth. It shows the diversity of life on Earth and how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet. The movie was released simultaneously on June 5th in cinemas all over the world, on DVD and on YouTube. Released on the same date in 50 countries is a world record for any film release in history. The film is 100% free, and no profits will be made from its release or future showings.
I wasn’t going to add anything other than a brief introduction to the main film. However, an article in The Economist The World in 2012 caught my eye and seemed especially relevant to promoting the message carried by the film. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, wrote about the power of social media and how it would be even more evident in 2012. This is the paragraph that caught my eye,
Expressing our authentic identity will become even more pervasive in the coming year. Profiles will no longer be outlines, but detailed self-portraits of who we really are, including the books we read, the music we listen to, the distances we run, the places we travel, the causes we support, the videos of cats we laugh at, our likes and our links. And, yes, this shift to authenticity will take getting used to and will elicit cries about lost privacy. But people will increasingly recognise the benefits of such expression. Because the strength of social media is that it empowers individuals to amplify and broadcast their voices. The truer that voice, the louder it will sound and the farther it will reach.
That last sentence jumped out at me, “The truer that voice, the louder it will sound and the farther it will reach.” Mull on that as you watch the film and, please, please, please if you support the need to return to a harmonious relationship with the planet spread the word as far and wide as you can.
Please promise yourself to sit down quietly and watch it uninterrupted. And if you feel so minded to add comments to this Post please do – would be delighted to have your feedback.
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.
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.
For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.
HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
HOME official website
http://www.home-2009.comPPR is proud to support HOME
http://www.ppr.comHOME is a carbon offset movie
http://www.actioncarbone.orgMore information about the Planet
http://www.goodplanet.info
So settle down and watch what may be one of the most important films of your life.
Learning from Dogs 
No time to see the video now, but willl do so later.
Your sub-title: “Too late to be a pessimist” makes me realize that we come at this from two directions. I of course would have said “Too late to be an optimist”.
We are witnessing the meltdown of the euro and possibly the EU and with serious consequences for the world economy thanks to Europe’s cretinous national leaders who cannot or refuse to live within their country’s means. Either that or they can`t appoint Finance Ministers who can add up – see Lagarde Christine – Director of the IMF after TOTALLY FAILING to rein in Frnce’s soaring debt.
And in connection with failure and indeed LIES being rewarded on a massive scale we should also look at the new PM of Greece dumped on the country by the angry Merkozy partnership – the previous PM’s crime having been to seek approval from the people for the misery the EU insists they be made to suffer. This person was previously Director of the Bank of Greece at the time of the euro launch and was responsible for preparing Greece’s entry to the aforementioned. As such, he MUST HAVE KNOWN that the statistics Greece presented (with advice from Goldman-Sachs on how to massage the figures) to prove that it was complying with the criteria for entry were a pack of LIES. So, the LIAR who is partly responsible for this shambles is now made PM to try to sort it out.
This has all been driven totally by lies, greed, short-term greed, utter folly and total incompetence. The idea that “democracy” as it now exists can produce leaders of the calibre required to make a difference in GW is absurd. One has only to look at the sureally-pathetic Republican Party Presidential candidates.
Apart from anything else, ALL these leaders keep longing for GROWTH to save their and their country’s bacon, and growth is exactly what the planet does NOT need.
It is SO hard for Homo Sapiens to “learn lessons”. We leave it ALWAYS either to the last minute or too late so that massive problems occur and vast remedial work has to be done. With GW, I doubt that these brainless strategies will work.
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Hi Chris. Again, your thoughtful and lengthy commentary is so much appreciated. Most of what you wrote I agree with. I took the title for the Post from the film.
Yes, please do watch it as your response would be very welcome. Best wishes, Paul
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Like Chirs, I have not got time now to watch a 90-minute film but, I did watch the trailer, which is very good. Co-incidenally, Sandberg featured on a BBC2 programme last night about Mark Zuckerberg.
It may be that my sense of humour is continuing to fail me but, despite the fact that I am on Facebook, Sandberg came across to me as very insincere, shallow and, above all, wrong. Facebook is a joke; and I hope its bubble well and truly bursts – and soon.
As this you tube video suggests, no-body has hundreds of friends. Apart from itself, the only thing that Facebook promotes is superficiality. It is socially and psychologically destructive. And don’t get me started on “sponsored stories” – I will never click on a Like button ever again….
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Sandberg is a manipulative employee of the plutocracy. She deliberately confuses truth and making everybody a “fille publique” in the French sense, and she knows it (but fille publique is her avocation, so it makes perverted sense).
Revealing too much about oneself exposes one to all sort of persecution from states and their goons. I was attacked with lethal force twice already (once with a bomb), among other harassements (like various threats from bankers) and I have learned that the lower I fly below the radar, the safer I am, since I am apparently on mission established order does not quite approve of.
But it is true that the Internet has the potential to help the truth along. So speak the truth, but hide the self.
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Wow! The replies from you and Martin have got me thinking. Why? Because, in general, I think that there can’t be too much harm from being open about oneself. Maybe that’s because I don’t consider myself as a threat to ‘states or goons’.
But, as you and many other readers know, I am passionate about promoting a better world for my grandson and all the millions of grandchildren across the globe. 37,000 readers of Learning from Dogs in November suggest I’m not shouting in an empty hall.
So too late to hide the self but, nonetheless, your comments thought-provoking.
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“HOME” is of course a remarkable movie, and I thank you for drawing attention to it…
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