Live Satellite Premiere: The Age of Stupid

Hoyts Sylvia Park will deliver a New Zealand first, and a truly thought-provoking night with the live satellite broadcast of the New Zealand & Australian premiere of The Age of Stupid eco-drama at 8.30pm Wednesday 19 August.

The simultaneous premieres, from a zero waste tent in downtown Auckland and the Sydney Theatre Company in Australian will be broadcast live onto the big screen only at Hoyts Sylvia Park.

“Either we seriously tackle climate change or we wipe out most life on Earth. The future of our species and everything we have ever achieved is at stake, so it's not a tricky decision,” said The Age of Stupid’s director Franny Armstrong from Sydney.

The Age of Stupid is an ambitious drama-documentary-animation hybrid starring Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching ‘archive’ footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change while we had the chance?

Drawing together six real-life stories that illustrate very different aspects of the effects of climate change, the film has been described as the ‘more emotional sibling to the rational brother of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.’

Or, as the News of the World described it: The Age of Stupid is a “deeply inconvenient kick up the backside."

The Auckland & Sydney events will be powered by using 100% accredited green energy as well as the use of solar panels to power the satellite broadcast trucks. Guests at the Sydney premiere will walk up a green carpet on arrival. They will be encouraged to arrive via sustainable transport. Special guests in Sydney will arrive in pedapods (bicycle taxis). Other guests will be arriving on bicycles, cycling up the green carpet into the Sydney Theatre Company where they will have access to a complimentary bike valet service.

In Auckland the premiere will be beamed into a special zero waste, solar powered tent, with the event MC’d by Oliver Driver. While that event has been sold out, people can still be part of the excitement by attending the simultaneous satellite screening at Hoyts Sylvia Park.

To create genuine interactivity and audience participation, filmgoers will be invited to text questions to put to the Australian Panel.

The Age of Stupid is being distributed by Hoyts Distribution.

Hoyts Marketing Executive Kate Stace said Hoyts was fully committed to raising awareness of the effects of climate change by screening and distributing the film.

“We encourage all businesses to recognise their carbon footprint and its impact on climate change,” said Kate Stace.

In the UK, The Age of Stupid broke the World Record for largest simultaneous premiere ever with 64 sites around the UK playing the film live, linked by satellite to a solar powered tent. The whole event emitted less than 1% of the emissions of a standard movie premiere.

Group bookings for The Age of Stupid are available by calling Hoyts Group Bookings: Charlotte Macdonald, cmcdonald@hoyts.co.nz Mobile: 021 494 838

Kate Stace said the new satellite capability now being deployed in New Zealand gave the cinema chain the ability to screen not just films, but sports and other events.

“We can also work with clients to connect corporate offices globally and enable conferences and functions, bringing together people from all around the world on to our screens with a lower carbon footprint.”