The Upside of Down Short Film

A short film based on the book
by Thomas Homer-Dixon

Promo blurb: A stunning animated flight through a maze of ominous plinths opens this BookShort docu-drama based on Thomas Homer-Dixon’s book, released by Knopf Canada. The Upside of Down captures the urgency of our headlong rush into global crisis, flashing through poignant film clips of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, referencing epidemics of disease and wars fought over finite energy resources, crystallizing the need for thinking with a “prospective mind.” Then, in a brilliantly rendered and surprising transformation, what initially seemed a dire journey becomes a perfect film interpretation of Homer-Dixon’s ultimate message of hope, renewal and survival in a future full of surprises.

The book was adapted for the screen by philosopher and long-time Homer-Dixon fan Michael McGarry; directed by Gary Thomas; animated by Crush, scored by Martin Worthy, produced by Judith Keenan and Stephanie Pennington.

About the Book:  The Upside of Down

From www.theupsideofdown.com:

In The Upside of Down, political scientist and award-winning author Thomas Homer-Dixon argues that converging stresses could cause a catastrophic breakdown of national and global order — a social earthquake that could hurt billions of people. But he shows that this outcome isn’t inevitable; there’s much we can do to prevent it. And after setting out a general theory of the growth, breakdown, and renewal of societies, he shows that less severe types of breakdown could open up extraordinary opportunities for creative, bold reform of our societies.

Homer-Dixon contends that five “tectonic stresses” are accumulating deep underneath the surface of today’s global order:

* energy stress, especially from increasing scarcity of conventional oil;
* economic stress from greater global economic instability and widening income gaps between rich and poor;
* demographic stress from differentials in population growth rates between rich and poor societies and from expansion of megacities in poor societies;
* environmental stress from worsening damage to land, water forests, and fisheries; and,
* climate stress from changes in the composition of Earth’s atmosphere.

Of the five, energy stress plays a particularly important role, because energy is humankind’s master resource. When energy is scarce and costly, everything a society tries to do — including growing its food, obtaining enough fresh water, transmitting and processing information, and defending itself — becomes far harder.

The effect of the five stresses is multiplied by the rising connectivity and speed of our societies and by the escalating power of small groups to destroy things and people, including, potentially, whole cities.

Drawing parallels between the challenges we face today and the crisis faced by the Roman empire almost two thousand years ago, Homer-Dixon argues that these stresses and multipliers are potentially a lethal mixture. Together, they greatly increase the risk of a cascading collapse of systems vital to our wellbeing — a phenomenon he calls “synchronous failure.” Societies must do everything they can to avoid such an outcome.

On the other hand, if people are well-prepared, they may be able to exploit less extreme forms of breakdown to achieve deep reform and renewal of institutions, social relations, technologies, and entrenched habits of behavior. This is likely our best hope for a prosperous and humane future.

Excerpts from The Upside of Down >

Thomas Homer-Dixon is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and Scientific American. His book, The Ingenuity Gap, won the 2001 Canadian Governor General Award for Non-Fiction.

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