Director: Louie Psihoyos
Writer: Mark Monroe
Stars: Elon Musk, Joel Sartore, Louie Psihoyos
Storyline:
Scientists predict we may lose half the species on the
planet by the end of the century. They believe we have entered the sixth major
extinction event in Earth's history. Number five took out the dinosaurs. This
era is called the Anthropocene, or 'Age of Man', because the evidence shows
that humanity has sparked this catastrophic loss. We are the only ones who can
stop it as well. The Oceanic Preservation Society, the group behind the Academy
Award® winning film THE COVE, is back for "Racing Extinction". Along
with some new innovators, OPS will bring a voice to the thousands of species on
the very edge of life. An unlikely team of activists is out to expose the two worlds
endangering species across the globe. The first threat to the wild comes from
the international trade of wildlife. Bogus markets are being created at the
expense of creatures who have survived on this planet for millions of years. The
other threat is all around us, hiding in plain sight. There's a hidden world
that….
Details:
Official Sites: Official Facebook | Official Facebook
Country: USA
| China | Hong Kong | Indonesia | Mexico
| UK
Language: English
Release Date: 18 September 2015 (USA)
Also Known As: 6
Racing Extinction Reviews:
I found harlemblues review to be a terrible
misrepresentation. They are prepared to call the documentary dishonest, but
have many misrepresentations in their review. Where to start?
Is a documentary required to 'focus(ing) on one aspect?' No.
Why? This documentary showed the top to the bottom of the problem we are facing
- from climate change, to overfishing, and many others. Focusing on one aspect
would have been incomplete.
Yes, I am sure that many of the issues have been covered in
other documentaries. This is an important topic. Not everyone has seen those
other documentaries.
No, this documentary isn't essentially racist - which is the
implication of this review. Some bad things happen in China and Indonesia. These are illustrative
problems, and not an attempt to paint these people as all bad or criminals. Some
people have been sold a lie about a product making them feel better. The demand
for this product leads to absurd outcomes. The outcomes serve as a
representation of how people (almost all of us) are damaging the planet. They
mention the terrible contribution of CO2. The damage done my farming. The cost
of our transport and industrial production. Yet because they went after a few (Asian)
people who were doing either bad things or pointlessly damaging (but
financially beneficial), the whole thing should be written off?
This wasn't a documentary about poor people. That's for
another documentary. It should be noted that they tried to help them see
another route to the money - money that will be gone when they've killed all
the mantarays for that pointless trade. Sure, we don't want those people to
starve, but to suggest that they continue that practice because it makes some
money is absurd. Presumably those same people were doing something to live
before the Chinese were sold some bunkum about mantaray gills.
This review is filled with insecure hate about 'hero white
guys' and telling the filmmakers where to go to get their footage. Some of
these things happened in Asia. We know they
happen in other places, but at the moment there is a problem with exotic
species in China.
Would it help to understand the problem if we do the opposite and have Asian
people busting 'white guys' in Alaska?
About the time the director cried, I was crying as well. This
is an immensely important documentary, that isn't perfect. The footage is stunning,
the problem is overwhelming and urgent, and the message is - in the end - just
the slightest bit hopeful. It is a shame that when a documentary is so well
crafted to show so many aspects of the problem as this one does, that someone
could take from it the message that I read from harlemblues. Just another sign
of the uphill struggle.
