Surviving Progress

Nov 4, 2011

1h 26m

★ 7.3

Every time history repeats itself, the price goes up.

Overview

Humanity’s ascent is often measured by the speed of progress. But what if progress is actually spiraling us downwards, towards collapse? Ronald Wright, whose best-seller, “A Short History Of Progress” inspired “Surviving Progress”, shows how past civilizations were destroyed by “progress traps”—alluring technologies and belief systems that serve immediate needs, but ransom the future. As pressure on the world’s resources accelerates and financial elites bankrupt nations, can our globally-entwined civilization escape a final, catastrophic progress trap? With potent images and illuminating insights from thinkers who have probed our genes, our brains, and our social behaviour, this requiem to progress-as-usual also poses a challenge: to prove that making apes smarter isn’t an evolutionary dead-end.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Big Picture Media Corporation

ONF | NFB

Surviving Progress Trailers

Cast

Self

Stephen Hawking

Self

David Suzuki

Self

Jane Goodall

Narrated by Academy Award winners Sissy Spacek and Herbie Hancock, River of Gold is the disturbing account of a clandestine journey into Peru's Amazon rainforest to uncover the savage unraveling of pristine jungle. What will be the fate of this critical region of priceless biodiversity as these extraordinarily beautiful forests are turned into a hellish wasteland?

6.0

Watershed: Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West

Mar 24, 2012

As the most dammed, dibbed, and diverted river in the world struggles to support thirty million people and the peace-keeping agreement known as the Colorado River Pact reaches its limits, WATERSHED introduces hope. Can we meet the needs of a growing population in the face of rising temperatures and lower rainfall in an already arid land? Can we find harmony amongst the competing interests of cities, agriculture, industry, recreation, wildlife, and indigenous communities with rights to the water? Sweeping through seven U.S. and two Mexican states, the Colorado River is a lifeline to expanding populations and booming urban centers that demand water for drinking, sanitation and energy generation. And with 70% of the rivers’ water supporting agriculture, the river already runs dry before it reaches its natural end at the Gulf of California. Unless action is taken, the river will continue its retreat – a potentially catastrophic scenario for the millions who depend on it.

6.9

I.O.U.S.A.

Jan 19, 2008

With the country's debt growing out of control, Americans by and large are unaware of the looming financial crisis. This documentary examines several of the ways America can get its economy back on the right track. In addition to looking at the federal deficit and trade deficit, the film also closely explores the challenges of funding national entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

6.8

The Great Green Wall

Oct 22, 2020

An epic journey along Africa's Great Green Wall — an ambitious vision to grow a wall of trees stretching across the entire continent to fight against increasing drought, desertification and climate change.

7.0

Jurassic Cash

Jun 1, 2022

Jurassic Cash is a documentary on the new business of dinosaur fossils, an incredible speculation in the auction world… And on the footsteps of our past.

7.7

The Take

Sep 3, 2004

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed ceramics workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - the take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head. Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.

6.2

Stories Our Cinema Did (Not) Tell

Mar 6, 2017

Filled with raunchy laughs, this documentary compiles outrageous scenes from sex-comedies that shaped Brazil's "pornochanchada" boom of the 1970s.

0.0

Você Também Pode Dar um Presunto Legal

Jul 5, 2006

Amid the civil-military dictatorship implanted with the 1964 coup, Sergio Muniz had the idea of making a documentary about the action of the Death Squad. At the time, the press still had some freedom to disseminate the work of these death squads formed by police officers of various ranks, and that he acted on the outskirts of cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The victims of police repression (as today) were men, poor and black, and this condition is supposed criminals.

0.0

Franklin

Sep 8, 2022

Eighth-generation Tasmanian and environmentalist Oliver Cassidy embarks on a life-changing solo rafting trip down the beautiful yet remote Franklin River. His goal is to retrace his late father’s 14-day expedition to attend the blockade that helped save the World-Heritage listed national park from being destroyed by a huge hydroelectric dam project in the early 1980s.

No Image Available

0.0

The University

Oct 22, 2016

On a NASA research base in Silicon Valley, there's an organization that's changing the world ... Singularity University (SU). Created by renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, with support from NASA, Google, and others, the university brings in some of the smartest students from around the world, and gives them a crash course in the most powerful exponential technologies on the planet. The students are then given a challenge: create companies that will impact a billion people within ten years. The film follows the students and their companies over five years, as they use the support of scientists, astronauts and billionaires in their attempt to make a dent in the universe.

0.0

Golden Times – Cassandra’s Treasure

Nov 28, 2012

The exploitation of the country’s mineral wealth is projected as the most reasonable solution to deal with the economic crisis that plagues Greece. The Greek state has ceded its mining rights over 31.700 ha of land in northern Halkidiki, a region rich in gold, copper and other metals, to the Canadian multinational company Eldorado Gold. However, many of the region’s inhabitants, who have been resisting the construction of a goldmine for years, claim that this investment will cause irreparable damage to the environment and the benefits will be fewer than the losses. “Cassandra’s Treasure” presents a detailed picture of the modern Greek state before and during the crisis period.

0.0

Amérique latine, l'année de tous les dangers

Mar 15, 2019

No overview available.

7.5

Grizzly Man

Jul 28, 2005

Werner Herzog's documentary film about the "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in one man's attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.

7.2

A Brief History of Time

Oct 1, 1991

This shows physicist Stephen Hawking's life as he deals with the ALS that renders him immobile and unable to speak without the use of a computer. Hawking's friends, family, classmates, and peers are interviewed not only about his theories but the man himself.

7.1

Roger & Me

Sep 1, 1989

A documentary about the closure of General Motors' plant at Flint, Michigan, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 jobs. Details the attempts of filmmaker Michael Moore to get an interview with GM CEO Roger Smith.

7.0

An Inconvenient Truth

May 24, 2006

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

6.5

Inside Chernobyl's Mega Tomb

Dec 21, 2016

Documentary which follows the construction of a trailblazing 36,000-tonne steel structure to entomb the ruins of the nuclear power plant destroyed in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

6.5

A Dangerous Game

May 1, 2014

In this sequel to the award-winning You’ve Been Trumped, director Anthony Baxter once again follows American billionaire Donald Trump and a cast of other greedy characters who want to turn some of the Earth’s most precious places into golf courses and playgrounds for the super rich. From the historic site of Dubrovnik to the ancient sand dunes and rolling green hills of the seaside town of Balmedie, these tycoons bully local residents, influence governments, ignore local referendums and even meddle in national environmental policies to acquire their latest trophies. With in-depth interviews and Baxter’s expert storytelling, we learn just how devastating these golf courses can be to the surrounding countryside and water tables. In this funny, inspiring and at times heartbreaking David and Goliath story for the 21st century, the locals don’t give in easily. But will their fight be enough to protect their land and traditional way of life?

6.5

Amazon

Jan 1, 1997

Explore the mysterious Amazon through the amazing IMAX experience. Amazon celebrates the beauty, vitality and wonder of the rapidly disappearing rain forest.

Surviving Progress

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Surviving Progress Trailers