Marjorie Luke Hosts New Zeitgeist Film

Contrary to Gil Scott-Heron’s declarations to the contrary, the revolution will be televised. In fact, it will be on the big screen this week, when filmmaker Peter Joseph, the man behind the cult-followed and controversial Zeitgeist film series, unleashes his latest social-justice call to arms in a coordinated international release at independent theaters around the country. Like Zeitgeist: The Movie and Zeitgeist: Addendum, Zeitgeist: Moving Forward is an edgy documentary aimed straight at the heart of the establishment, designed specifically to topple the status quo and replace it with a new world order that puts a premium on universal equity and positivity via higher-minded thinking. In short, the message is this: Our current money-based economy is destined to fail us all, but a sustainable, practically utopian solution based on little more than the world around us and the technology we have grown so good at developing is ripe for the picking. All we have to do is reboot.

An undeniable Internet sensation, Zeitgeist: The Movie has been viewed by millions of people via the Web since its release in 2007. The sequel, Addendum, keeps the spirit and urgency of the first film and dumps the excessive conspiracy theories about religion and 9/11 in favor of a concrete intellectual argument for replacing profit-based social systems with one that is free of competition and predicated solely on natural resources. The star of the film and chief champion of the message is a curious dude living in Florida named Jacque Fresco. A self-taught architect, designer, and social engineer, Fresco heads up the Venus Project and has spent the last three decades visioning a more sustainable future. Altogether, the two films, whether you agree with them or not, present a unique and stimulating serving of brain food but ultimately fall short of explaining how we get to this better place.

Enter Moving Forward. Screening for free at the Marjorie Luke Theatre (721 E. Cota St.) this Saturday, January 22, at 6 p.m., the documentary is being billed as providing just such a set of directions for followers of the Zeitgeist movement. Visit luketheatre.org for info.