DN:FILM Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
The trio of directors Nicholas de Pencier and Jennifer Baichwal and photographer Edward Burtynsky are making the case that our Holocene Epoch should be renamed the Anthropocene to better reflect the massive changes humans are making to the planet. ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH is the third in a trilogy of films by the collaborators—following 2006’s “Manufactured Landscapes” and 2013’s “Watermark”—as well as one component of the multidisciplinary Anthropocene project, which also includes museum exhibits, books, virtual reality and research.
The film, global in scope, is horrifyingly beautiful. Dense, fully packed images of altered landscapes fill the screen. They are taken from a wide array of areas on the globe, where human ingenuity is at work bringing about change. It’s an odd experience to witness the deep grooves, long scratches, and gaping holes made into the earth and still appreciate the isolated beauty of the scene; and then to be shocked by the realization of just how massive, affecting and rapid these human impacts are. Take the mesmerizing white and blue-grey marble quarries in Carrara, Italy; where a worker explains that, not long ago, what used to take almost a month to excavate mostly by hand now takes a mere a day because of the enormous support from machinery. Watching these massive engineering marvels rip, pull, and tear at the earth is both entrancing and alarming. It’s arthouse filmmaking meets advocacy. Alicia Vikander’s sweeping narration provides only the most basic data, and if the film always eventually reveals where the images are from, it leaves many questions unanswered. An experiential, visceral doc that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen you can find, it relies on its imagery to make its point, plucking viewers from their comfort zones and dropping them directly into the chaos. It works—but said viewer is likely to be plugging scientific terms and remote place names into the nearest-available search engine as soon as possible.
Easy solutions aren’t offered. Inevitability pervades the narrative, leaving viewers to reflect—however bleakly—on what humans are capable of doing to the planet.
In Select Theaters