About halfway into The Future is Now!, the protagonist of the movie meets a philosopher. Amidst other words of wisdom that the thinker offers — including eloquently articulated views on the American dream and the perception of optimism — he contends that the true purpose of art is to inspire, provide guidance and ultimately change one’s life for the better.
Without even knowing it, the logician — Alain de Button — manages to summarize the entire motivation that directors Gary Burns and Jim Brown had for making the The Future is Now!, which is opening in Calgary on Friday, July 15.
“I think that the film is inspiring, or it should be,” says Burns, who was recently declared the “Best Local Filmmaker” by Fast Forward Weekly readers. “It’s a taking stock of where we are in the arts and sciences, but it’s even more a reminder to talk about things like philosophy for a change.”
The new quasi-documentary — which serves as the second collaboration between Burns and Brown following their award-winning Radiant City — follows the journey of the Man of Today (Paul Ahmarani) as he fulfills a challenge issued by the Woman of Tomorrow (Liane Balaban) to expand his relatively closed mind by talking to experts all over the world. Throughout the film, the viewer witnesses the Man of Today’s libertarian ideals begin to crumble as he converses with creative and intellectual minds such as local poet Christian Bök, South African artist Marlene Dumas and Japanese architect Shigeru Ban about topics such as happiness, truth, beauty, responsibility and hope.
However, the film’s action is not limited to a series of talking heads. The Future is Now!, which is based on a French film from the 1940s, relies on an intentionally cheesy plot (accompanied by retro music composed by John Abram) to facilitate the Waking Life-like pilgrimage that the Man of Today embarks on.
Burns first saw the original 1949 film — Life Begins Tomorrow — at a film festival in 2007. He was searching for a new project to work on at the time, and knew as soon as he saw it that it was perfect for him and Brown.
“It was just such a bizarre, different film,” says Brown, “and we both thought that it was so interesting and so updatable. Obviously, all of the concerns and issues are different, but we thought that it would be interesting to take that format and take the issues and concerns of today and then essentially make the same movie.”
Elements ranging from the dedication at the beginning (“to the scientists, artists and others throughout the world who continue to see hope for the future”) to the concluding scene of the movie all make reference to the original documentary. A hologram of “special guest” philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre — who died in 1980 and was featured in the original film — even became one of experts that the Man of Today meets along the way.
Shirley Vercruysse, producer of The Future is Now!, says that the new film makes Radiant City look like a straight-up documentary.
“The Future is Now! is one of those films that people either like or don’t like,” she says. “Those are the camps. It’s not much of middle-ground kind of film.”
Reactions to the movie so far have certainly reflected that observation. The Globe & Mail’s Liam Lacey declared that the film was “condescending” and “inane,” to which Burns responds by saying that Lacey was unfair to the film and was “either drunk or doing it at four in the morning not giving a shit anyway.” Some of the “codgers” in the crowd at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival were angry that the film wasn’t a true documentary, but both Burns and Brown assure that the general response at the festival was positive.
“There are documentary elements in this film, but if you still think that you’re watching a documentary after watching five minutes of this film, then chances are you’re not going to get it anyway,” Brown concludes.
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