Saturday, 2 October 2010

10:10 'No Pressure’ Short Film

Richard Curtis (of Blackadder and Four Weddings fame) has made a short film for 1010, a carbon cutting campaign called 'No Pressure’. It features people getting blown up for not cutting their emissions.

Now some people have taken this as saying that Greens think we should blow up people who don't cut emissions, which is ridiculous.

10:10 have listened to the criticism and apologized for any offense and left the video on youtube with an apology. Some are saying this means the Greens are censoring debate. Equally silly.

The movie is sort of funny, in a shocking way. Much like Blackadder, who we laugh at while he abuses Baldrick. You can like Blackadder but not want to do as he does; its fiction, and indeed comedy. Similarly in this case, the fil is eye opening & controversial and it will raise a debate. But to claim it says its OK to kill people is empty rhetoric, just the sort of argument used by climate change deniers.

I have been reading comments, the negative ones seem to be from deniers. One says "May you and your children be blown up". So they are complaining about the images of people being blown up by wishing people were blown up? This reminds me of the pro life people in the states who want to kill Doctors. There are some very disturbed people out there; don't let them set the agenda or we really will be in trouble.

Richard Curtis had talked enthusiastically about the campaign. “The 10:10 team are a fearless, energetic bunch, completely dedicated to getting the public fired up about climate change. They also turn out to be surprising good at blowing stuff up,” he said on its release.

Franny Armstrong, 10:10 founder, said the shock tactics were justified. “We 'killed’ five people to make No Pressure - a mere blip compared to the 300,000 real people who now die each year from climate change.”

4 comments:

DocRichard said...

I am surprised at the surprise of the film makers at the negative reaction to the film. Given the bitter opposition of the climate deniers, they handed the opposition a stick with which to beat us.

The first thing to think of in any piece of publicity is "How could the opposition spin, bend and exploit this?"

Blowing people up carries associations with terrorism and war. Art is all about these tenuous associations.

Franny is still an OK person though. We all make mistakes...

Adrian Windisch said...

I know you have had a bad time with this yourself. The last election your decision was exploited by some nasty LD.

In this case the film is a comedy. A few people are upset and they appologised; fair enough. The deniers try and use this to claim greens want to kill deniers is ridiculous. But then deniers are not knowm for their sence. They deny clear evidence as set out out on uour blog.

People should be outraged at the lack of action on climate change. At the deaths pf innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the needless death and injury of our own troops in that pointless war.

Yet they claim to be outraged by cartoon like violence. Why do they not protest at the simpsons? Because its politically motivated fake outrage that is outrageous

Anonymous said...

I disagree with all that has been said above.

Everyone is thinking in a "us vs. them" mentality.

If you really care about the planet you should care about the people on it too.

The film sends a mixed message. It says "Save the Planet" and then the people who don't go green are blown up. It makes no sense to love a big chunk of rock more than a human being

Adrian Windisch said...

I dont think you have read any of the above comments or indeed the post.

Greens put people and planet before buisness interests. You should be concerned at the big parties who are doing nothing to prepare for the future. Expect power cuts as there is no investment in renewablea. People on low incomes will suffer with the cutting agenda. Greens are diffetent.