Archived News 2006
NZ animation company Flux, gets starring role in new Al Gore film
29th June 2006
Media release 29 June 2006 from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise; reprinted by Film New Zealand with permission.
Award-winning New Zealand animation company Flux Animation Studio is the Kiwi connection in the independent documentary film 'An Inconvenient Truth' which played to full houses and standing ovations at the famous Sundance Film Festival in Utah last month.
Auckland-based Flux directed two animated sequences included in the 90-minute feature film, which documents former United States Vice-President Al Gore's impassioned efforts to spread the word on the dire implications of global warming. The same sequences will also screen as a backdrop to Al Gore on stages throughout the world when he delivers his highly-acclaimed environmental speeches.
Flux's New York agents Hornet Inc, a prestigious United States commercial, film and design company, introduced Flux Animation Studio Brent Chambers to the project a year ago and Flux's animation work for the film began on return from a pre-production meeting with the film's high-profile producers and director in Los Angeles last July.
Brent Chambers says New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) support was crucial to Flux's being able to attend the pre-production meeting with Hornet and the producers. The appointment was made during Flux's NZTE-sponsored attendance at SIGGRAPH, an international conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, in Los Angeles in July and August.
"NZTE's support has opened a world of opportunities for us at Flux," says Brent. "NZTE helped facilitate meeting with international partners, and was instrumental in establishing our ongoing collaboration with Hornet."
'An Inconvenient Truth' includes footage from some of the hundreds of multimedia presentations Gore has given over the past three years, interspersed with revealing personal reflections. In these presentations he correlates carbon dioxide emissions with exponentially rising temperatures, and their links to melting ice-caps, drought and rising sea levels. The Sundance Film Festival guide describes the film as a 'gripping story' with 'a visually mesmerising presentation' that is 'activist cinema at its very best'.
Flux Animation Studio Managing Director Brent Chambers who, with his 12-year-old son Max, also briefly appear in the film, says: "The film has sparked huge international interest and praise, which has been thrilling for us especially as it is our first venture into feature films."
Brent Chambers says one of Flux's long-term goals is to make an animated feature film.
"This is a great step towards that, and to be doing it in such great company was wonderful. The real bonus was to take my son, Max, to meet Al Gore and to listen to him speak about important issues for the planet and our children’s future."
Brent and Max were filmed as part of a 'live audience' at a Los Angeles presentation by Al Gore in October last year. They sat in the front row, and afterwards met the former Vice-President in person.
Flux's Andrew Newland directed one of the film's animated sequences – it centres on the plight of a polar bear searching desperately for a scrap of polar ice. Fraser Monroe at Flux directed the other sequence, which was based on the parable of the boiled frog in which a frog remains in water that is gradually heated until boiling. The parable highlights Gore's point that, as well as paying attention to obvious threats, humans should also focus their attention on more slowly developing ones.
'An Inconvenient Truth' is directed by Davis Guggenheim, director of the Emmy Award winning series 'Deadwood' and husband of actress Elisabeth Shue. Its producers include Laurie David (environmental activist and wife of Seinfeld creator Larry David), Lawrence Bender ('Pulp Fiction', 'Good Will Hunting', 'Kill Bill'), and e-Bay pioneer Jeff Skoll.
Democrat Al Gore was Vice-President to President Clinton from 1992 to 2000 and has devoted his working life since his 2000 presidential election defeat to educating people on the dangers of global warming to the world's ecology and economies. He is author of 'Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit' and estimates he has presented his multimedia presentation more than 1000 times over the past five years.
ENDS
For further information please contact: Brent Chambers, Managing Director, Flux Animation Studio ph: 09 360 6003, mob: 027 275 6531 www.fluxmedia.co.nz
Distributed by Sandeep Bhim, Communications Consultant, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. Phone: +64 4 910 4365. E-mail: sandeep.bhim@nzte.govt.nz
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