Tonight I, my husband, and my 10 year old daughter were part of the
global screening of The Age of Stupid. What utter, simple, brilliant
work. To be so suddenly and powerfully presented with the clear
responsibility of my generation ... words cannot possibly express
what this does to one's body, mind and spirit. Truly. I thank you
all for your faith, brilliance, vision, humor, and love. Let's do
this together.

I personally was VERY moved by the NY event for “Stupid” – yes, the host was a bit “Stupid” – but that was ok – it was emblematic… and the young White males in the crowd were given a role model… For me seeing IPCC / Annan… the “toe to toe” with the UK negotiator… it was very good.
Mary Olsen, Asheville, NC

I know it's not over for you yet but I wanted to say that we saw the live event in California tonight and I was tickled to pieces at how the business in the tent afterwards was so reminiscent of the dozens and dozens of local rallies that I have attended over the years. I want you to tell everyone that all the glitches and missteps were absolutely FANTASTIC - don't edit them out, put them in the DVD! (except perhaps Frannie's offstage swearing after introducing Kofi Annan - though I loved that just as much)

The reason why it all was so great is that in this horrible culture of super-slick, this was R E A L. Our audience guffawed through all the goofy pulling-it-off-by-the-seat-of-your-pants bloopers that it made the live event accessible and understandable.

Tell Frannie that she is superb. She is hard hitting and unforgiving and raw and has just the right amount of dork thrown in. So it could be me up there, or my nerd cousin - so you see it makes activism feel achievable to see her do her thing. Everyone gasped with glee when Frannie needled Ed Miliband for his "politician answer". Reporters don't do that here in the US, not in that fully dismissive mocking way - and it is refreshing! There's too much awe of power, and Frannie levels it.

Now for a bit of critique. This comes from someone with years of experience helping behind the scenes in grassroots direct action campaigns, much of which involved motivating crowds.

1) Never trust the position of M.C. to someone from a mainstream media background. Rallies are not the Emmies, and major media types are too steeped in TV culture to be able to get across the important political points in the time period constraints without losing their train of thought or getting sidetracked in irrelevancies, culture-bound as they are in consumerism. No offense Gideon - I could tell your heart was in the right place, but you sucked. It was right that Frannie kept upstaging you, she was WAY more intelligible and knew what serious points to get across. I did appreciate Gideon's grace in giving Frannie her due place, that was a very good call.

2) The serious points to get across: This is where Team Stupid needs some schooling from the long-term ground activism. You need to be a lot more specific with your direction of action that people should take. Yes, cut your emissions. ALSO: Tomorrow, Call X politicians. Educate yourself - go to X websites. Read the Climate Science, access X publications. Boycott X Corporations. Demand X provisions in the COP 15. Or if no specific provisions, demand that the agreement contain X, X and X (such as binding, immediate, and science based emissions cuts) AND GET OUT ON THE STREET.

After the show in San Rafael, a woman stood up and asked everyone as they were leaving, "What are we going to do?" The only answer given was to attend the 350 rally on October 24th in Hyde Park in San Francisco. But it felt unsatisfactory because October 24th is a long way off yet. People leaving the theater after the Age of Stupid wanted to do something right away.

This is good. You have done an amazing amazing job, all of you. Thank you, you have given us a great tool, and a great way to feel connected to each other, all over the globe. That's probably the most powerful part of it.

How can we maintain that feeling of being connected to all the people all around the world who have seen/are seeing The Age of Stupid? We need to use it to propel us forward.

In hope and gratitude,
K

The Age of Stupid is a fantastic movie that really helped to quantify and shove the urgency of a global mandate to help end global warming in our faces! I'm not going to lie, I was crying a little bit at the end. Although I told myself to get it together as I went by myself in the theater and didn't want to look like a blubbering idiot... I cant f**king believe we have until 2015 to literally ensure the survival of this planet. -Taeka H, New York