Award-winning documentary “Deep Green” reveals the best solutions to stop global warming now

Nov. 2, 2010 - PRLog -- “Deep Green” – the inspiring new documentary revealing the best solutions to stop global warming now – has just been released on DVD.  The unprecedented feature film was shot in nine countries, including China, by an international team of award-winning cinematographers during a three-year quest for the best ideas, technologies and restorative solutions that can make a difference, led by first-time filmmaker Matt Briggs.

Featured are  insights from such leading authorities as Lester Brown, Michael Pollan, Dr. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Dr. David Suzuki, former CIA Director James Woolsey, Southern California Edison’s Director of Electric Transportation Edward Kjaer, and Barbara Finamore, Director of the Natural Resources Council’s China Program.

Created for mainstream audiences, the $2 million production features an original music score by jazz pianist Randy Porter and music from Phish – as well as eleven world class animations by the award-winning Bent Image Lab.  Among them are festival favorites “The Krill is Gone,” about the devastating impact of CO2 on the world’s oceans, and “Trees,” on how cutting down our forests creates even more CO2 – both voiced by SpongeBob legend Tom Kenny. Notably, “Krill” has been accepted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for official consideration for Best Animated Short.  “Deep Green” is the recipient of the Artivist Award for Best Feature in the Environmental Preservation category.  
DVD total running time:  1 hr. 46 min.  (Includes feature film, “The Krill is Gone” and “Trees”)  Filmed in HD with the digital Sony 900R camera system.  The “Deep Green” DVD is currently available for $15.99 at Amazon.com.   Official website:  www.DeepGreenMovie.com.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION:

Before shooting a single frame, Briggs spent four years studying the latest research and applications through more than 400 books, thousands of articles, and attendance at over two dozen major conferences.  When “Deep Green” began principal photography in July 2007, “many of the solutions had not been discovered and they were found while we were shooting the movie. As the film progressed, the science got stronger and the solutions got better. Now we know that much of global warming is man-caused, and we know how to fix it,” he says.

Through never-before-seen-footage, “Deep Green” takes us behind the scenes of China’s burgeoning green initiatives – arranged and filmed by Beijing-based cinematographer Andrew Clark, who has traveled extensively for the National Geographic Channel, BBC, and CNN, including as Christiane Amanpour’s cameraman in Pakistan following 9/11.  Among other revelations, we discover that factories are being redesigned.  Thousands of old, inefficient coal plants are being replaced.  Beijing recycles 50 percent of its water, and energy efficient lights are everywhere.  Provincial governors and factory owners are assessed on how well they cut their emissions, and companies have to prove that they’re in compliance with environmental laws before they can get bank loans.  The country’s move towards electric transportation encompasses more than 100 million electric bicycles currently on the road, a network of high-speed trains and subways, and such incentives to forego car ownership as a $7000 fee to register a vehicle in Shanghai and a 40% sales tax on SUVs in Beijing – with $8,000 in credits to buyers of electric cars.  

We also visit massive wind farms in Mongolia (part of the over 100,000 megawatts of wind power to be online by 2020; the equivalent of 200 average size coal electric plants); the world’s largest solar hot water heater factory; a complex of buildings in Beijing all receiving 80% of their heat and cooling from the same geothermal heat pump; and a state-of-the-art Ultra Super Critical Coal plant that eliminates 97% of sulphur dioxide emissions, 99% of nitric oxide emissions, and 99% of soot and dust, though still guilty of releasing 30,000 tons of CO2 per day. The biggest surprise?  Despite a GNP that is one-third of the United States, China has surpassed us in green technology spending by over 600% in their effort to both lower carbon emissions and dominate the green tech industry of the 21st century.

We also journey to France for a close-up of Alstom’s 224-mph high-speed trains with a carbon footprint  4-5 times less than an airplane. In Sweden, we drop into “the greenest city in Europe” to see how they do it.  We listen in on a town hall meeting in Marburg, Germany—a community like many others that is grappling with how to leave fossil fuels behind and transition to renewable energy, wanting to do the right thing, but concerned about how to pay for it.  In Germany and Spain, we’re given a preview of the astonishing, just-approved Project DESERTEC—a super-sized smart grid to supply-diverse renewable energies to much of Europe and North Africa.

The film is also filled with fascinating facts.  For instance, we learn that 51% of all energy used in the U.S. is consumed by our buildings.  Of all the products used in construction today, cement is the #1 source of CO2, simply because of the way it’s manufactured.  Switching to white roofs could eliminate one billion tons of carbon per year.  You can cut up to one-third of your energy consumption by situating the broad face of a building north and south.  How we move from place to place is 20% of our carbon footprint.  We can achieve up to a 1 billion-ton reduction in CO2 in the U.S. alone by switching over to various forms of electrifying transportation.   The state of Texas is in the process of installing wind farms that will serve 60% of the residential needs of the 22 million people living there.  Thailand, the Philippines and China have banned deforestation with their borders.  

In a recent review of “Deep Green,” the Oregonian wrote: “There are a lot of global-warming/climate-change documentaries out there, the biggest of course ‘An Inconvenient Truth ‘-- and until now all have presented the same ratio of doomsday scenarios vs. planet-saving-solutions: about nine to one. A necessary message, but an awfully depressing one at times.’ Deep Green’ flips this ratio, offering hope instead of despair.  Matthew Briggs' assured, informative and aesthetically pleasing debut documentary goes all over the world to show the ingenious solutions being devised right now to get humanity off fossil-fuel consumption and reduce civilization's carbon footprint.”

The Examiner.com, calls “Deep Green” “an eye-opening film that utilizes science, technology, reality and compassion to highlight not only the responsibility each individual has for reducing mankind’s carbon footprint on the planet, but also what is already being done internationally to solve the global warming crisis. With the help of ‘Trees’ and ‘The Krill is Gone,’ two entertaining animated shorts that shine the light on deforestation and ecosystem imbalances, ‘Deep Green’ does a great job of explaining why energy conservation is critical to the survival of living things on the planet and examines how major countries are making important strides to reduce their nation’s dependence on fossil fuels.”

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Filmmaker Matt Briggs helped pioneer the wild mushroom industry in the U.S.. Beginning in 1981, he co-founded what quickly became the largest commercial operation in North America to collect and deliver fresh wild fungi to restaurants, specialty stores and such other clients as the White House. The son of a college professor who later became Dean of Students for Portland State University, Briggs obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon, where he majored in both the arts and premed.