I've been yearning to see a film in a multiplex that has nothing to do with NewFest or the queer film festival circuit. Don't get me wrong, I love LGBT film, I'm just slightly burnt out at the moment, as we're ramping up to open the festival June 1st, and I'm working overtime to put together engaging panels of filmmakers, activists and academics for the Filmmakers Forum (June 10 & 11). I just needed a break. Yes, I saw "X-Men 3" the second it opened - c'mon, Halle Barry in tight leather kicking mutant and non-mutant ass is just too delicious to pass up.
At the urging of several friends and colleagues, I went to see Davis Guggenheim's "An Inconvenient Truth" - you know, the Al Gore global warming film. I tried to go Thursday night but it was sold out, Friday night but it was sold out and just barely squeaked in tonight. Being such a hot ticket on the Upper West Side made this more like an incovenient movie. Who knew Al Gore had a personality? We always knew he had the substance. This film basically follows him around the world as he gives his ever-updated scary-as-hell (that's how hot the planet will get) analysis of global warming and its catastrophic consequences. Just when the audience is about to despair at the seemingly hopeless situation, Mr. Gore cites precedents for such seismic shifts in our nation's conscience and policies, like the abolition of slavery and the dramatic reduction in CFC Emmissions to repair the whole in the ozone layer. That last one rang a loud bell of memory in me.
UN Peace Day 1989 (that's me on the right - like my baby dyke mullet?)
I have an incredibly clear recollection of standing proud and passioante on the podium of the general assembly of the United Nations in 1989 as part of Peace Child, facing the Secretary General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, and demanding that the UN mandate a reduction in CFC gasses NOW! I was so nervous that I'd mispronounce ChloroFlouroCarbons, or that I'd screw up the Japanese lyrics in the duet or that I might miss the fleeting glimpses of my friends in Moscow over the satelite feed. Mostly, I remember feeling empowered to change the world for the better. At age 19 I was standing in one of the great international halls of power pleading, demanding and singing my way to a healthier global future. Everything seemed possible. And at least one of those "demands" from us petulant youth came to pass with the signing and enforcement of the Montreal Protocol to reduce CFC's. The Ozone layer has mostly been repaired.
Part of the closing credits of "An Inconvenient Truth" (with an awesome not-too-subtle original Melissa Etheridge tune "I Need to Wake Up" as accompaniment) are suggestions for reducing carbon emmissions that individual folks can accomplish on their own - do their part to reverse the damage. Example: Replacing one regular lightbulb with a compact flourescent bulb will save over 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Or ride mass transit. Recycle. Plant a tree. All very doable. The most marketable suggestion was to urge everyone to see this film. Clever promo, huh?
It made me walk home in the balmy Spring night, although hopping on a hybrid bus wouldn't have burned too much fossil fuel. Tommorow: light bulbs.
