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Reviewed by:
  • Recipes for Disaster, and: The Axe in the Attic, and: Umbrella
  • Enzo Ferrara
Recipes for Disaster by John Webster. Icarus Films, Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A., 2008. DVD. 63 min, closed captioned. Distributor's website: <http://icarusfilms.com/new2008/reci.html>.
The Axe in the Attic by Ed Pincus and Lucia Small. The Cinema Guild, New York, NY, U.S.A., 2007. DVD, 110 min. Distributor's website: <www.theaxeintheattic.com>.
Umbrella by Du Haibin. Icarus Films, Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A., 2007. DVD, 93 min. Distributor's website: <http://icarusfilms.com/new2008/nuc.html>.

Although they concentrate their respective attentions on supposedly separate issues—the human factor, environmental catastrophes and rising consumerism in developing countries—the questions raised by this set of documentaries are strictly intertwined. The viewpoint can move from Denmark to the Southern U.S.A. or China, but the focus remains on the same arguments: the mainstream directions of economics and the responsibility of governments and people for their behavior, collectively as a society and individually as citizens in daily life. The environmental endangerment related to greenhouse gases and climate change remains in the background, while the perspective remains in the social impacts at various levels of the global economic system.

Recipes for Disaster is a Finnish documentary that tackles the question of the excessive amounts of anthropogenic CO2 continuously sent into the atmosphere. Usually, remarks the director, people blame corporations and industries for what is going wrong with the planet—but what about the global mistakes that we daily pursue in a collective commitment to mistaken attitudes? "We are addicted to oil," explains John Webster, filming himself, "and it's going to lead us to destruction."

The film develops along six sections, whose major concerns are forms of denial (It's not my problem, psychological denial, rationalizing bad behavior, persistence in error, hang on to what you have and innocently happy). The director likens our behavior to sawing off a branch on which we sit and remaining happy. "Environmental warning lights are flashing like crazy," he explains, "yet how do we respond? By consuming even more oil."

Webster and his family decided to experiment with a one-year period of oil detox, living without any fossil-fuel derived tool, like cars or airplanes, and avoiding everything packaged in plastics, such as take-away food, make-up, shampoo, toothpaste, toys, etc. "An oil celibacy," they call it, while recording the transformation of their habits and evaluating the results in terms of reduced CO2 emissions.

The film confronts us with the depth of our current oil addiction, revealing acute withdrawal symptoms. We know that excess consumption is not doing us any improvement; rather it is going to destroy everything we hold dear, but it appears as if we just cannot break free. These are the recipes for disaster, Webster concludes—the seemingly innocent daily failures of common people, which lead step by step to destruction.

And destruction can happen. The Axe in the Attic presents a 60-day road trip from New England to Texas in the aftermath of Katrina, the hurricane that struck New Orleans in 2005. Its impact was among the worst ever for the U.S.A. in terms of human lives (at least 1,836 casualties) and economic damage ($81.2 billion US). The film also illustrates the catastrophic failure of protective agencies to deal with the resulting flood. Doubts are raised about the true will of the government to protect the poorest citizens of New Orleans. The title itself refers to the wisely self-consistent attitude of keeping a hatchet in the attic to smash the ceiling and reach, in case of flood, a safer position on the roof.

The two filmmakers, Lucia Small and Ed Pincus, captured along the way stories from people displaced by the disaster. They simply pointed the camera and filmed scenes of wreckage, confusion and hysteria. As the journey approaches the hurricane zone, the mood darkens. A surreal atmosphere of calm prevails as days are spent managing endless government and insurance paperwork. The evacuees allow us to witness loss, dignity and perseverance, but also humor, although they feel like exiles in their own country...

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