10 - "No Impact Man" & "Surviving Progress"

Sina Youssefi
Liam O'Connor
Iulia Bolnavu
        Conflict has always been widespread. The history of humans had been written by conflict and the reason for all of it is differences in ideologies taken to extremes. The films No Impact Man and Surviving Progress were ones that had one primary focus on the conflicting ideologies of the modern world: Capitalism and Environmentalism. However, neither film presented their ideas in violent or harmful ways but rather by interviews and lifestyle changes.

Part 1: No Impact, No problem

The primary focus of the films being analyzed is the concept of ideology and utopia, observing the films with those topics in mind makes the comprehension of those films much easier. No Impact Man, directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein and published in 2009, took place in the united states of America, in the city of New York and had a duration of 1h33minutes. To be able to undrestand the topics we must first define them: Ideologies are a set of beliefs, values, habits, ways of seeing, that shape our understanding of the world. These are often reinforced by using rituals or traditions. Groups will often use ideologies to justify their actions. On the other hand, utopia can be seen as a world where everything follows a certain ideal. For example the "utopic world" for a rich businessman would be one that is comprised of free trade and markets, when a utopia for an environmentalist would be one that minimizes waste.

Colin Beavan, "No Impact Man"

Colin Beavan was and is, in fact, an environmentalist. This being said, it was this environmentalist nature that led him to begin the project that would eventually become "No Impact Man". This means that it was his conflicting ideology witht eh common one of the United States of America that truly became an inspiration for the film, and thus became a central topic. Over the course of 365 days, he and his family (wife Michelle and daughter Isabella) would embark on a journey where they would not minimize their waste, but remove it all together. This transition between an average family and a planet saving one would be done in several steps, including the elimination of imported goods, trash and food waste, no non-self-propelled transportation and finally no electricity. The main issues presented by the film include the high amount of waste produced by the population, along with the large amount of waste that is produced by the human race and how we can easily do without these wastes. Colin presents these issues while attempting to prevent them in his own life: he explains things such as how recycling is really down cycling (the grade of recycled materials decreases with each recycling process) and how the meat industry creates a large amount of greenhouse gases. All these environmental issues are presented almost at the very beginning of the film and are really used as a driving force for the whole project.

Critics of No Impact Man would often say that he is an idealist. In fact, Colin was living in a way that would not be sustainable because he wanted to live in a utopic world. The lifestyle he chose was one that was based off actions that can seem ritualistic or traditional. Every morning he would have to get up and go to the farmer’s market for food and took transportation that was man powered, he was living in the ideal situation for many environmentalists and that is the exact reason that he was the subject of the amount of hate he received, because his utopia seemed like a dystopia to the outside world.

No Impact Man was a special film due to the fact that not only did it seek to inform the audience but it also attempted to incite actions in the viewers. Colin made a point of demonstrating that many of his new habits and lifestyles are possible for the average person to adopt and even encouraged them to follow in his steps by going to colleges and presenting his project for trial. Every reader can gain something from this film, be it the family values it brings fourth or the environmentally friendly ones, many lessons can be learned. Words often speak less than actions and No Impact Man had both. More information on the project and Colin himself can be found athttp://noimpactproject.org/

Part 2: Using, Consuming, and Overall; Wasting

            “Surviving Progress”; a 1 hour and 26 minute documentary film directed by Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks in 2011, uses interview processes with a wide range of people, from all around the world, to get a good idea of the state of the environment, the reasons for which it is as it is (due to things like consumerism and the distribution of resources.

Though touching on the same subject as No Impact Man, Surviving Progress presents its audience with a different side of the same story. This story being the reality that is our environment and the state it is in. While we get a look, in No Impact Man, at some of the ways Colin Beavan tries to lessen his impact on the environment, within this second documentary film we are shown the actual state of the world around us. Through our capitalist and consumerist ways, alongside a very realistic issue known as overpopulation, we are driving our planet towards an early grave, and if it goes, we go with it.

            As can easily be distinguished by the title, Surviving Progress really digs into the issues caused through the evolution of the human race, or even more specifically, the lack there of. It brings up the term “Progress Trap” which brings into account the consequences of our so called “progress”. An example given talks about how cavemen would have made good progress in learning to kill two mammoths at the same time rather than just one, and would resultantly end up better off, however, learning to kill an entire herd by having them run of a cliff, would in turn be counterproductive. These progress traps have led to the fall of countless civilizations in the past, and it can easily happen to us too unless we learn to acknowledge them and change the way we do things, for instance, we need to start producing things to last, rather than disposing of them frequently and getting new ones.  Though we easily forget it, resources are not unlimited; they are of a finite source and unless we can learn to manage them better, there will end up being nothing left.

            The distribution of wealth is another big subject touched in this film. As stated by Vaclav Stil (one of the people interviewed) “Poor people need more, there is no doubt about it…but as for us, we certainly could and should do with much much much less” us, in this context, being developed as well as developing countries in some cases. Currently, what is going on is that we, in 1^st world countries, consume way too much and usually this is off of the backs of the populations of the underdeveloped countries of which their populations barely have enough to survive. Below is a short clip presented in Surviving Progress which goes to show just how the first world thrives off of the backs of the poor.

In the end, the simple truth is, the earth cannot support all of us. The planet would not be able to support all of humanity consuming, using and creating as much waste as we have grown accustomed to and, in fact, if China alone were to start going through resources at the same rate as the western world, the planet would not be able to even come close to keeping up. There are only two solutions to this issue; firstly, we could learn to consume less, or second, the colonization of space. Now which sounds more reasonable to you?

Part 3: What We Thought

            No Impact Man, as well as Surviving Progress, shows us how nature and humanity are irrefutably and fundamentally linked to one another. As animals, we are primarily dependent on our environment but modern life disconnects us from nature. Living in the city isolates us and makes us omit or even forget the imprint that we have over our planet. No Impact Man makes us reflect on our society’s deep capitalist roots and makes us contemplate the utility and the necessity of our daily consumptions.

            We often see environmentalist documentaries as extremist or even utopic when in fact we do not need to take extreme measures like Colin did to make a change in the world, if everyone would take small steps and would make small sacrifices in their routines instead of radically rationing their way of living, it would have a much greater and better result ecologically than fewer but bigger acts. Protecting our nature should be a common effort deployed by our entire community and we should work on getting people more and more involved, in small ways like composting or merely by making people more aware of the trash they generate weekly and making them realize how they could invest more of their time and money on doing things that they love or on living experiences instead of working to materialistic ends.

            The film teaches us how at the end of the day, the most memorable moments we spend in our lives are with our loved ones; this family’s experiment made them realize how time should be invested in love and life rather than on superficial caprices. The fact that the camera was following the family around made the movie really personal and made the viewers feel like they were a part of it too, a part of their routine which I found pertinent to the context.   

            People from developed countries no longer live in nature; they live among it. There exists an emotional fracture and a lack of interest for the ‘’poor’’ that live a simpler life and that are considered ‘’weak’’ as well as an indifference towards natural destruction. Our current economic models which mainly consist of world globalization and the power that multi-nationals hold have a huge impact on everyone’s lives.

            As we see in the movie Surviving Progress, the Amazonian forest as well as many other beautiful ecosystems have been tainted or even annihilated by the savage exploitation of multi-national corporations. It is surprising to see how in the era of communication, few people are informed, really informed. It needs to change because we have to create a collective conscience to save our planet and to look for real solutions to our problems like financial abuses and corporation involvement that dictate the internal politics of poor countries. A huge step has been made with the signature of the conference of Paris, the COP21, in 2015, in which the climate change has been openly acknowledged and where the richest countries promise to work together to reduce global pollution. http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/en/.

            We can see through this documentary that a simpler way of living is not necessarily a bad way of living and that people are still happy without all the materials we own but are often exploited and maneuvered by the elite which make us question the ways of our society. I found it really appropriate how they let their witnesses tell their story in their own language and put the subtitles in English underneath because I think it made it look like globalization and environmental issues are really a global problem and affects everyone in a certain way. The nature shots are necessary too I find to really attach an image to what the people in the film are saying.

            Personally, I went to my grandmother’s farm in Romania this summer and I saw how she lived a much more modest life that me. She reuses or recycles everything, the extra food that is left she gives to the pigs, the old bread she gives to the cats and she makes compost with everything remaining. She also consumes a lot less than me, merely buys any clothes, does not take showers as often as me and does not need the latest technologies. I could see that she was still living a happy life but while being there I could not stop thinking of my discomfort because I did not have access to internet, because I could not take showers every day, because there were no stores or distractions. Instead of enjoying nature, I was focusing on all the wrong things and it made me realize how our capitalist country really has shaped me as a person.

             In conclusion, although conflict has marked mankind and stained the history books, the films No Impact Man and Surviving Progress demonstrated that it is not the only way to make change or present ideas. The films show that one can always be heard and understood by using methods that do not antagonize but rather communize people, and that is what both films are about.