Environment 1990

Short Film (Full Length) – 1972

Made for the United Nation's first 'Earth Summit' in Stockholm in 1971, this film explores possible futures for Aotearoa's environment. Director Hugh Macdonald (This is New Zealand) presents an impressionistic ecosystem: mixing shots of natural wonders, urbanisation, and pollution with abstract montages and predictions from futurologists, including Jacques Cousteau’s “underwater man”. Before climate change heated up 21st Century doomsday debates, this film (made for the Ministry of Works!) emphasises individual responsibility. The score enlists French nursery rhyme ‘Are You Sleeping?’.