Earth’s film stars tremble nervously in the wings
When SterKinekor launched its IMAX Space and Nature Series at the Eastgate Mall in Johannesburg this week, those of us who were lucky enough to be in attendance wanted for nothing – or almost nothing.
There were goodie bags. There was a photographer and a green screen and props so that we could pose for interplanetary mementos. There was popcorn by the bucketful, of course, and cold drinks aplenty.
Chips, hot dogs, cupcakes for the kids. A buffet of delicacies for those with more sophisticated palates. Juice and coffee for all.
But my daughter was thirsty and asked me politely for a drink of water. Parents will know that such rare requests must be encouraged.
We soon discovered, however, that water could only be acquired by paying the nice women at the refreshment kiosk for something bottled and distributed by Nestlé (a firm not known for best practice when it comes to public health or environmental concerns).
The brand is unimportant – whether it was Nestlé, or Coke, or even a local company — the fact that I had to buy bottled water when culinary and liquid delights were so freely available developed in my mind into a parable about consumer behaviour, privatisation and access to natural resources.
Residents of Gauteng anxiously watch the levels of the Vaal Dam. Water restrictions are in place around the country and farmers are still battling to recover from the recent drought.
South Africans should not need reminding about the scarcity of water.
In the US, where Donald Trump’s election as president has emboldened the antiecology lobby, water has become a key political symbol, from Flint in Michigan to Standing Rock in the Dakotas.
Fundamentally, water and its absence or presence are the sine qua non of human exploration of the cosmos. “Is there life on other planets?” usually means, “Is there water on other planets”?
“Can we live on Mars?” means, “Will we have to colonise Mars one day?”
As an astronaut featured in IMAX Space Station 3D observes while staring out to sea, there is nothing that focuses your appreciation for Earth’s inconceivably complex ecosystems as the prospect of leaving it all behind.
When you look from space down to the Blue Planet, you see water, water everywhere; and where you see land, you don’t see the artificial boundaries that mark out countries or the ideological divisions that splinter nations into factions.
The IMAX Space and Nature Series is the perfect antidote to the pendulum swing that has resulted in the geopolitical nightmare of 2016: a swing from open to closed societies, a swing away from an acknowledgement of the collective good and towards the short-sighted protection of narrow interests.
Ster-Kinekor is pushing the series as an educational product, for adults and for kids, and I will support it (especially if the company is going to give lots of underprivileged schoolkids the chance to watch it for free).
One shouldn’t be naïve or idealistic about IMAX as a phenomenon. Space exploration invokes in us all a form of aeronautical enthusiasm, but when watching Space Station 3D, such enthusiasm is somewhat dulled by the prominent reminder that the movie is sponsored by Lockheed Martin – which may build space stations but is also a major dirty dealer in the global arms trade.
In addition, the film is narrated by Tom Cruise; from the glamour of Top Gun to the three-ring circus of Scientology, I’m not sure he is the best figure to be associated with an educational initiative.
Still, it’s captivating to watch. I will happily don 3D glasses for family IMAX outings, especially as the nature films in the series outnumber the space films three to one.
Nourishing a child’s sense of wonder for the natural world is one thing; preserving this sense of wonder in adults, and directing it into responsible citizenship, is another.
The challenge is to connect the eyes and minds marvelling at IMAX films on Madagascar, the Galapagos Islands or the South Pacific with the very real threat that climate change, and rising ocean levels, will destroy the places that are so vividly depicted on screen.
WATER AND ITS ABSENCE OR PRESENCE IS THE SINE QUA NON OF HUMAN EXPLORATION OF THE COSMOS