PROGRAMME ANNOUNCEMENT

24-01-2008/ 6.00 PM /

Cochin Media School, Albe's estate,

(near south overbridge),

S.A.Road,Ernakulam


An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Color/English/Directed by: Davis Guggenheim/Running Time: 100 minutes

Synopsis
“You look at that river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the river bank. It’s quiet; it’s peaceful. And all of a sudden, it’s a gear shift inside you. And it’s like taking a deep breath and going, 'Oh yeah, I forgot about this'.”

— Al Gore in the opening monologue of An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth focuses on Al Gore and his travels in support of his efforts to educate the public about the severity of the climate crisis. Gore says, "I've been trying to tell this story for a long time and I feel as I've failed to get the message across." The film nearly follows a Keynote presentation (dubbed "the slide show") that Gore presented throughout the world. It intersperses Gore's exploration of data and predictions regarding climate change and its potential for disaster with Gore's life story.
It weaves in events that changed his worldview, including his college education with early climate expert Roger Revelle at Harvard University, his sister's death from lung cancer, and his young son's near-fatal car accident. Throughout the film, Gore makes comments regarding his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 United States presidential election. For comic effect, Gore also uses a clip from the television show "Crimes of the Hot" to explain global warming.
In the slide show Gore reviews the scientific opinion on climate change, discusses the politics and economics of global warming, and describes the consequences he believes global climate change will produce if the amount of human-generated greenhouse gases are not significantly reduced in the very near future. A centerpoint of the film is his examination of the annual temperature and CO2 levels for the past 650,000 years in Antarctic ice core samples.
The film includes many segments intended to refute critics who say that global warming is unproven or that warming will be insignificant. For example, Gore discusses the possibility of the collapse of a major ice sheet in Greenland or in West Antarctica, either of which could raise global sea levels by approximately 20 feet (6m), flooding coastal areas and producing 100 million refugees. Melt water from Greenland, because of its lower salinity, could then halt the currents that keep northern Europe warm and quickly trigger dramatic local cooling there. The documentary ends with Gore arguing that if appropriate actions are taken soon, the effects of global warming can be successfully reversed by releasing less CO2 and planting more vegetation to consume existing CO2. Gore calls upon his viewers to learn how they can help him in these efforts.
Gore's book of the same title was published concurrently with the theatrical release of the documentary. The book contains additional information, scientific analysis, and Gore's commentary on the issues presented in the documentary. A 2007 documentary entitled An Update with Former Vice President Al Gore features Gore discussing additional information that came to light after the film was completed, such as Hurricane Katrina, coral reef depletion, glacial earthquake activity on the Greenland ice sheet, wildfires, and trapped methane gas release associated with permafrost melting.

The film opened in New York City and Los Angeles on May 24, 2006. It grossed an average of $91,447 per theater, the highest of any movie that weekend and a record for a documentary, though it was only playing on four screens at the time.
At the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, the movie received three standing ovations. It was also screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and was the opening night film at the 27th Durban International Film Festival on June 14, 2006. An Inconvenient Truth was the most popular documentary at the 2006 Brisbane International Film Festival
The film has grossed over $24 million in the U.S. and over $49 million worldwide as of June 3, 2007, making it the fourth-highest-grossing documentary in the U.S. to date (after Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and Sicko).

Awards
The film won the 2006 Academy Award for Documentary Feature and Best Original Song for Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up".It is the first documentary to win a best original song Oscar[citation needed].
It has often been erroneously reported by many members within the various news and entertainment media outlets that Al Gore himself had won the Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth“ but it was actually Davis Guggenheim who was the Nominee and Recipient of the Academy Award.
The film received special recognition from the Humanitas Prize, the first time the organization had handed out a Special Award in over 10 years.
2007 Stanley Kramer Award - The Producers Guild of America; recognizes "work that dramatically illustrates provocative social issues".
The President’s Award 2007 - The Society for Technical Communication "for demonstrating that effective and understandable technical communication, when coupled with passion and vision, has the power to educate—and change—the world."
For his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world’s attention to the dangers of global warming including An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Best Documentary:
Academy Awards (The Oscars) 2007 February 25, 2007
Chicago Film Critics Association- 2006-12-28
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association - 2006-12-18
Florida Film Critics 2006 - 2006-12-22
Kansas City Film Critics Awards 2006- January 2, 2006
Las Vegas Film Critics Society 2006 - 2006-12-18
National Board of Review- 2006-12-06
New York Film Critics Online - 2006-12-10
New York Film Critics Society - 2006-12-12
Ohio Film Critics Awards 2006 - 2007-1-11
Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards 2006
Online Film Critics Society 2006
Phoenix Film Critics Circle 2006
Satellite Awards 2006 (Nominated) December 18, 2006
St. Louis Film Critics Awards 2006 January 07, 2007
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2006 (Nominated) December 19, 2006
Utah Film Critics Awards 2006December 28, 2006
Washington D.C. Film Critics Association 2006 December 10, 2007
Best Non-Fiction:
National Society of Film Critics - 2007-01-06

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth)