Opening with a powerful ‘deep time’ perspective, from the beginning of the Earth to our present moment, BAFTA-winning director Peter Armstrong's new film recognises the fundamental unsustainability of today’s society and dares to ask the big question: What will follow?

Around the world, fresh shoots are already emerging as people develop the skills, will and resources necessary to recapture the initiative and re-imagine civilisation, often in the ruins of collapsed mainstream economies.

We encounter extraordinary projects and people from four continents, from the likes of renegade economist Kate Raworth, conservative philosopher Roger Scruton and Gaian ecologist Stephan Harding to localisation revolutionary Helena Norberg-Hodge, inspirational practivist Rob Hopkins, eco-pioneer Jonathon Porritt and philanthropist composer Peter Buffett, among many others.

They are cultivating a resilience not reliant on the impossible promise of eternal economic growth; developing diverse, satisfying, convivial contexts for lives well lived. And lives that could leave a legacy to be proud of - a future worth the name.

As we discover, all were inspired by a work of rare depth that is rekindling optimism in the creativity and intelligence of humans to nurse our communities and ecology back to health – Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It – the posthumously published lifework of the late David Fleming. In his words:

“We know what we need to do. We need to build the sequel, to draw on inspiration which has lain dormant, like the seed beneath the snow."

The film is available for educational use from Bullfrog Films.

Post-Film Resources:

‘Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time’
– an eight-week online course starting Monday April 6th.
Discuss our times with stars of the film including Shaun Chamberlin, Kate Raworth and Rob Hopkins

Lean Logic.online
– the newly-launched, free-to-access, interactive version of the late David Fleming’s
legendary ‘Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It’

Filmmakers:
 

Director - Peter Armstrong, Empathy Media

Executive Producer - Shaun Chamberlin, Dark Optimism