Anthropocene: The Human Epoch [Film/Q&A]

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

Directed by: Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, Edward Burtynsky
Written by: Jennifer Baichwal
Narrated by: Alicia Vikander
Documentary, PG, 87 minutes, Language: English/Russian/Italian/German/Mandarin/Cantonese with English subtitles (Canada)

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GUEST Q&A | 7 pm screening

Nicholas de Pencier is a Director, Producer, and Director of Photography working in documentary, performing arts, and dramatic film. He is President of Mercury Films Inc., the Toronto-based production company he shares with his partner, Jennifer Baichwal. Selected credits include Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (International Emmy), The Holier It Gets, (Best Canadian Doc, Hot Docs), The True Meaning of Pictures (Gemini, Best Arts), Hockey Nomad(Gemini, Best Sports), Manufactured Landscapes, (TIFF Best Canadian Feature; Genie, Best Doc), and Act of God (Gala Opening Night, Hot Docs), Long Time Running (Gala presentation, TIFF 2017). Producer and Director of Photography of Watermark (Special Presentation, TIFF & Berlin, Toronto Film Critics Award, Best Canadian Film, CSA Best Documentary), and Black Code (TIFF 2016), which he also wrote and directed.

“To say that there are no easy answers to planetary woes is to state the obvious. But the film seeks to reveal rather than lecture, in the hope that our eyes will convince our brains to act before it’s too late.” – Peter Howell, Toronto Star

“Stunningly, even hypnotically shot – from the world’s largest landfill in Kenya, to the most polluted city in Russia (Norilsk, Siberia) to tons of tusks representing 10,000 dead elephants. A hard doc to walk away from unaffected.” – Jim Slotek, Original Cin

“As always, the images they capture are stunning and damning in equal measure.” – Andrew Parker, The Gate

A cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet, Anthropocene is a four years in the making feature documentary film from the multiple-award winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky.

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 evidence shows the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century, as a result 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 massive marble quarries in Carrara, the filmmakers have traversed the globe using high-end production values and state of the art camera techniques to document the evidence and experience of human planetary domination.

At the intersection of art and science, Anthropocene 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.

Official Selection – Toronto International Film Festival, 2018

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