The Possibility of Hope

I recently reviewed the DVD Children of Men for DVDFanatic. One of the bonus features on the disk was a 30-minute documentary by Alfonso Cuaron (who also directed the film) in which a battery of philosophers, historians, economists and ethicists discuss how the revolutionary themes of this futuristic film very much speak to our contemporary society. I have rarely indulged in a more thought-provoking half-hour, and certainly never expected something this meaty on the DVD for what I fully admit to be a magnificent and intellectually stimulating motion picture.

Children of Men, the documentary purports, represents a hyper-reality in which isolated individuals now possess as much power as entire countries, in which human mobility has transformed the face of the earth, in which our capacity for growth has nearly outgrown the surface of our planet, in which fear is humanity’s prime mover, in which our crumbling ecosystem is systematic of globalism’s collapse, in which national identity is as shifting as artificial lines on a map, in which urban space is quickly becoming weaponized, and in which extinction by our own hand is a very real possibility.

And yet, hope is possible only when despair reigns.

This one isn’t for those with short-attentions spans. But if you want to flex the muscle between your ears, this is intoxicating, heady stuff.

Don't have the DVD? No problem. Watch it in chunks at YouTube here.