Discover
Technological advancement, economic development, population increase - are they signs of a thriving society? Or too much of a good thing? Based on the best-selling book A Short History of Progress, this provocative documentary explores the concept of progress in our modern world, guiding us through a sweeping but detailed survey of the major "progress traps" facing our civilization in the arenas of technology, economics, consumption, and the environment.
Featuring powerful arguments from such visionaries as Jane Goodall, Margaret Atwood, Stephen Hawking, Craig Venter, Robert Wright, Michael Hudson, and Ronald Wright, this enlightening and visually spectacular film invites us to contemplate the progress traps that destroyed past civilizations and that lie treacherously embedded in our own. Leading critics of Wall Street, cognitive psychologists, and ecologists lay bare the consequences of progress-as-usual as the film travels around the world - from a burgeoning China to the disappearing rainforests of Brazil to a chimp research lab in New Iberia, Louisiana - to construct a shocking overview of the way our global economic system is eating away at our planet's resources and shackling entire populations with poverty.
Providing an honest look at the risks and pitfalls of running 21st Century "software" (our accumulated knowledge) on 50,000-year-old "hardware" (our primate brains), Surviving Progress offers a challenge: to prove making apes smarter was not an evolutionary dead end.
Original Release
03/23/2013
US Release
04/06/2012
Links
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Ronald Wright | Self - Author, A Short History of Progress |
Mark Levine | Self - Group Leader, China Energy Group |
Robert Wright | Self - Author, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny |
Marina Silva | Self - Former Minister of the Environment, Brazil |
Kambale Musavuli | Self - Friends of the Congo |
Vaclav Smil | Self - Population Scientist & Author, Global Catastrophies and Trends |
Colin Beavan | Self - Engineer & Author |
Michael Hudson | Self - Economic Historian & Former Wall Street Economist |
Jane Goodall | Self - Primatologist / Herself |
Ming Chen | Self - Self Driving Club Tour Guide |
Directors
Writers
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Ronald Wright | Self - Author, A Short History of Progress |
Mark Levine | Self - Group Leader, China Energy Group |
Robert Wright | Self - Author, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny |
Marina Silva | Self - Former Minister of the Environment, Brazil |
Kambale Musavuli | Self - Friends of the Congo |
Vaclav Smil | Self - Population Scientist & Author, Global Catastrophies and Trends |
Colin Beavan | Self - Engineer & Author |
Michael Hudson | Self - Economic Historian & Former Wall Street Economist |
Jane Goodall | Self - Primatologist / Herself |
Ming Chen | Self - Self Driving Club Tour Guide |
Changnian Chen | Self - Professor & Chen Ming's Father |
J. Craig Venter | Self - Biologist & CEO Synthetic Genomics |
Raquel Taitson-Queiroz | Self - Environmental Police Officer, IBAMA |
Gary Marcus | Self - Cognitive Psychologist & Author, The Birth of the Mind |
Daniel Povinelli | Self - Behavioral Scientist |
Victor Gau | Self - Director, China Association of International Studies |
Margaret Atwood | Self - Author, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth |
Simon Johnson | Self - Former Chief Economist, International Monetary Fund |
Enio Beata | Self - Sawmill Owner |
David Suzuki | Self - Geneticist & Activist / Himself |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Mark Achbar | Executive Producer |
Silva Basmajian | Executive Producer |
Betsy Carson | Executive Producer |
Martin Scorsese | Executive Producer |
Emma Tillinger Koskoff | Executive Producer |
Gerry Flahive | Producer |
François Girard | Producer |
Daniel Louis | Producer |
Denise Robert | Producer |