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Surviving Progress (2012) [DVD9 NTSC]

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SYNOPSIS: Technological advancement, economic development, population increase - are they signs of a thriving society? Or too much of a good thing? Based on the best-selling book A Short History of Progress, this provocative documentary explores the concept of progress in our modern world, guiding us through a sweeping but detailed survey of the major "progress traps" facing our civilization in the arenas of technology, economics, consumption, and the environment.

Featuring powerful arguments from such visionaries as Jane Goodall, Margaret Atwood, Stephen Hawking, Craig Venter, Robert Wright, Michael Hudson, and Ronald Wright, this enlightening and visually spectacular film invites us to contemplate the progress traps that destroyed past civilizations and that lie treacherously embedded in our own. Leading critics of Wall Street, cognitive psychologists, and ecologists lay bare the consequences of progress-as-usual as the film travels around the world - from a burgeoning China to the disappearing rainforests of Brazil to a chimp research lab in New Iberia, Louisiana - to construct a shocking overview of the way our global economic system is eating away at our planet's resources and shackling entire populations with poverty.

Providing an honest look at the risks and pitfalls of running 21st Century "software" (our accumulated knowledge) on 50,000-year-old "hardware" (our primate brains), Surviving Progress offers a challenge: to prove making apes smarter was not an evolutionary dead end.

REVIEWS:

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times wrote:
"MIND-EXPANDING...SUBVERSIVE...BRISTLING WITH PROVOCATIVE INSIGHTS. Both brainy and light on its feet, and with wide variety of involving visuals, this mind-expanding ecological documentary bristles with provocative insights and probing questions about humanity and the state of the world. Much more dystopian in its quiet way than 'The Hunger Games.”

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post wrote:
"CRITIC'S PICK! POWERFUL. One percenters won't like what 'Surviving Progress' has to say. It's jam packed with questions...confronting those questions can feel like an all-out assault on our entrenched world views, but it also feels critical to our very existence."

Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote:
“Critic’s Choice! An excellent documentary...succinct and entertaining. Colorfully weaves together a vast assortment of audiovisual materials as well as information, to highly watchable results. Do the earth a favor: see this movie, and drag a skeptic you know along."

Mike Scott, The Times-Picayune wrote:
“Clear, intelligent, visually striking...paints a portrait of a civilization with an end-game eerily similar to that of the Roman empire."

IMDb.............: User Rating of 7.0/10

Year.............: 2011
Runtime..........: 86 Minutes
Country..........: Canada
Audio............: English
Subtitles........: English, French
Video Format.....: NTSC
Aspect Ratio.....: 1.33:1
DVD Source.......: DVD9
DVD Distributor..: First Run Features
Program..........: AnyDVD

Menus............: [X] Untouched
Video............: [X] Untouched
DVD-extras.......: [X] Untouched
DVD-Audio........: [X] Untouched

Extras:

Introduction by Martin Scorsese: New York City Premiere, Film Society of Lincoln Center

Behind Surviving Progress: A Roundtable Discussion with the Filmmakers

Extended Interviews: Ronald Wright (Common Sense and a Near Miss, Everytime History Repeats Itself, The Price Goes Up, Ideological Pathologies and Easter Island); Ronald Wright and Michael Hudson (The Roman Empire); Michael Hudson (The 90% vs The 10%, The Oligarchy and The Lobbyists, The Short Term Is The Long Term); Jim Thomas (Disruptive Technologies); Jane Goodall (Stealing from Our Children)

Portrait Gallery: Voiceover by Ronald Wright and Gary Marcus

Filmmaker Biographies