Don't be stupid, go and see it NOW: thoughts from the Age of Stupid premiere

Olly Willans

Torchbox have been involved in Director Franny Armstrong's amazing Age of Stupid journey for the last 18 months or so, and last night's premiere was quite a climax.

Wow, it was exciting to be there: to watch the stars arriving in solar powered cars and on bicycles, to stand in front of the hundreds of flash bulbs on the 'green carpet' (aimed elsewhere, admittedly), to see our friends on stage taking on the Minister for Climate Change (and refusing to be fobbed off), and to see Pete Postlethwaite vow to return his OBE to the Queen and never, ever vote labour again if the government permits the building of the proposed coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth.

One of the biggest cheers of the evening went to the special message from the Prime Minister of the Maldives (why can't we have politicians like that?) announcing that the Maldives will be carbon neutral in just 10 years. Now that is real progress.

I mustn't forget the film in all this.

Franny wanted to make a film that actually changes people - an extraordinarily ambitious aim, no doubt. And, the fact is, she's done it. I've seen it happen. I've seen and heard people coming out of the cinema after watching the Age of Stupid saying that they will change their lives: saying that they won't fly any more; saying that they want to change their job; saying that they will change the way they vote. It won't change everyone, but this is a film that packs a huge punch

Climate change, according to Mark Lynas, is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. The world needs to change, and change quickly. So, the more people that see the Age of Stupid the better the chance of us changing in time. Please go and see it, and take everyone you know.

If you've already seen the film, please support the Not Stupid campaign in the lead up to the UN Climate Change Conference in December. Last night the Copenhagen Conference was called the 'do or die' moment for the world - a pretty chilling thought.

And, if you want more, go and watch the video report about the premiere from one of our other client's, OneClimate.