Anthropocene: The Human Epoch Film Screening

In conjunction with UCSB Library’s UCSB Reads 2020 program, the Carsey-Wolf Center and UCSB Arts & Lectures Thematic Learning Initiative present the film screening of Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, followed by a moderated discussion. 

A cinematic meditation on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2019) concludes a trilogy of films that began with Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and continued with Watermark (2013). The film follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group who, after nearly ten years of analysis and investigation, argue that the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century as a result of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth. 

From concrete seawalls in China that now cover 60% of the mainland coast, to the biggest terrestrial machines ever built in Germany, to psychedelic potash mines in Russia’s Ural Mountains, to metal festivals in the closed city of Norilsk, to the devastated Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and massive marble quarries in Carrara, the filmmakers traversed the globe with the newest cinematographic technology to document the evidence and experience of human planetary domination. Situated at the intersection of art and science, Anthropocene bears witness to a critical moment in geological history, offering a provocative and unforgettable record of our species’ impact.

Director and writer Jennifer Baichwal will join moderator Alenda Chang (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion.