A Plastic Ocean, the Old Man, and the Sea
Eight years after it was first conceived, five years after production began, our adventure documentary A Plastic Ocean premiered on January 19, 2017. We were entering Inauguration Weekend. A few days earlier, Christian Amanpour, CNN’s Chief International Correspondent, shared news of the film in this report. “As climate skeptics prepare to move into the White House, a new documentary is trying to wake us up to the chilling reality of plastic’s effect on our oceans,” Amanpour declared.
A Plastic Ocean opened as the #1 documentary in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.
Our timing was poetic; now it is poetic again, unfortunately so. A Plastic Ocean will screen next week at the United Nations, just six days after President Trump withdrew U.S. participation from the Paris Climate Accord.
[alert type=alert-white ]Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Cultural Weekly. We support strong creative voices.[/alert]
Mr. Trump’s action is dangerous and upside-down, informed by a dystopic vision of our world in which (I kid you not) he stated that the U.S. is a “disadvantaged” nation. Tell that to 71% of the world’s population, who subsist on less than $10 a day. Our head of state practices authoritarian, Orwellian inversion with no remorse — tragic for our domestic policy, especially perilous for our planet.
Last week I screened A Plastic Ocean at the Sun Valley Wellness Festival. One audience member, who sits on major corporate boards, proclaimed, “This is the best environmental film ever made, and I am so happy it is not political.”
Thank you for the kind words, sir, but to be accurate, our film is not partisan. The film contends that the ocean transcends partisan divides. Our waters are the source of our lives; James Joyce called the sea our “great sweet mother.” And so, A Plastic Ocean is deeply political, political in the fundamental sense of the polis, the common place we inhabit, in that the film concerns common spaces and the common good, stewardship of which is our common responsibility.
On June 6 I will be joined at the United Nations by the film’s director, Craig Leeson, Plastic Oceans Foundation US Executive Director Julie Andersen, and an audience of 600 delegates, NGO leaders, scientists, and engaged citizens. We will screen a condensed, 22-minute version of the film, a version we prepared for educational use, and we’ll have a discussion that focuses on solutions and making common cause.
On that day, I will be present as a proud United States citizen, standing with the majority of people in this nation and the world, standing on the side of common good and on behalf of our planet; I will be standing against the Old Man and the regressive regime change he represents.
You may donate to the Plastic Oceans Foundation to support awareness and further distribution of the film.
Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Leipzig is the founder and CEO of MediaU, online career acceleration. MediaU opens the doors of access for content creation, filmmaking and television. Adam, Cultural Daily’s founder and publisher, has worked with more than 10,000 creatives in film, theatre, television, music, dance, poetry, literature, performance, photography, and design. He has been a producer, distributor or supervising executive on more than 30 films that have disrupted expectations, including A Plastic Ocean, March of the Penguins, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Dead Poets Society, Titus and A Plastic Ocean. His movies have won or been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, 11 BAFTA Awards, 2 Golden Globes, 2 Emmys, 2 Directors Guild Awards, 4 Sundance Awards and 4 Independent Spirit Awards. Adam teaches at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. Adam began his career in theatre; he was the first professional dramaturg in the United States outside of New York City, and he was one of the founders of the Los Angeles Theatre Center, where he produced more than 300 plays, music, dance, and other events. Adam is CEO of Entertainment Media Partners, a company that navigates creative entrepreneurs through the Hollywood system and beyond, and a keynote speaker. Adam is the former president of National Geographic Films and senior Walt Disney Studios executive. He has also served in senior capacities at CreativeFuture, a non-profit organization that advocates for the creative community. Adam is is the author of ‘Inside Track for Independent Filmmakers
’ and co-author of the all-in-one resource for college students and emerging filmmakers
'Filmmaking in Action: Your Guide to the Skills and Craft' (Macmillan). (Photo by Jordan Ancel)
Previous Article
A Battlefield Confrontation – Now and Then
Next Article
Sydney Sonnier: “Unfair Deaths”