Tied together
Documentary explores connections between humans, nature
We live in a world of connectedness. This is one of the lessons in the documentary “Living in the Future’s Past.”
The film is produced and narrated by Oscar winner Jeff Bridges. It will be the closingnight film at the Albuquerque Film & Music Experience on June 9 at the KiMo Theatre.
“I’m real pleased with the way it came out,” Bridges says in a recent phone interview. “There are a lot of documentaries about the environment and climate change. This one has a little bit of a different angle.”
In the documentary, Bridges, alongside prominent scientists and authors, weaves evolution, emergence, entropy, dark ecology and what some are calling the end of nature into a story that helps us understand our place among the species of Earth’s household.
The film upends our way of thinking and provides original insights into our subconscious motivations, their unintended consequences, what to do about our fossil slaves, and how our fundamental animal nature influences our future as humankind.
“I was asked to do some narration on the project, and I wanted to meet with the director and talk about it,” he says. “I didn’t want to make a doomsday documentary, because there are plenty of documentaries about the blame. We started to think about why we are in this situation. Why we are acting the way we are. We started to explore that and met with philosophers, scientists and spiritual leaders. I wanted to do my part in creating a good world for my kids and their kids. I learned some principles of how nature works. It’s a first step with this documentary.”
A special Q&A session will follow the screening with director Susan Kucera and one of the top philosophers of our time, Timothy Morton, Ph.D., author of “Dark Ecology” and “Being Ecological.”
“We’re thrilled to be a part of AFME this year and to present ‘Living in the Future’s Past,’ which is the most intellectually honest film I’ve had the pleasure to be a part of,” Kucera says. “As Jeff says in the film, ‘It all sounds pretty trippy, and it is,’ but the film allows us to get friendly with our ability to reason and acknowledges the physical limitations of this ‘super-organism’ we’ve created. Timothy Morton and I are looking forward to hearing the thoughts and questions provoked from viewers in Albuquerque and to adding our insights on the film.”