The Producers

Director - Franny Armstrong

Franny Armstrong is a filmmaker and environmental activist. Born in 1972, Armstrong grew up in London and studied Zoology at University College London. In 1997 Armstrong completed McLibel, a documentary following the decade-long McDonald's libel trial, but was prevented from releasing it until 2005. Armstrong has also directed Drowned Out (2002) and The Age of Stupid (2009). She is the founder of Spanner Films and the 10:10 campaign which aimed to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

Producer - John Battsek

John Battsek is a British producer and manager of the film department at Passion Pictures. He is credited as producer or executive producer on nearly one hundred films. In 1999 Battsek produced One Day in September, winning him multiple awards including an Emmy for Outstanding Historical Programming. The film also won the Oscar for Best Documentary. Battsek went on to produce How I Live Now (2013) with Tom Holland and Saoirse Ronan and Listen to Me Marlon (2015). Battsek continues to produce multiple documentaries each year.

Making The Film

Armstrong claims to have had the idea for Age of Stupid in 2002 whilst drunk. Two years later she began to crowdsource funding, an uncommon method of financing films at the time. Armstrong and Battsek spent four years following the stories of seven people whose lives were in some way shaped by climate change which are tied together by the fictional character 'The Archivist' (Peter Postlethwaite). Filming took place between 2005 and 2007. The UK premiere of The Age of Stupid in 2009 broke the world record for the number of simultaneous screenings whilst only producing 1% of the emissions of a normal premiere. Armstrong launched the 10:10 campaign later the same year.