Humanity's ascent is often measured by the speed of progress. But what if progress is actually spiraling us downwards, towards collapse? Ronald Wright, whose best-seller, A Short History Of Progress inspired Surviving Progress, shows how past civilizations were destroyed by "progress traps" - alluring technologies and belief systems that serve immediate needs, but ransom the future. As pressure on the world's resources accelerates and financial elites bankrupt nations, can our globally-entwined civilization escape a final, catastrophic progress trap? With potent images and illuminating insights from thinkers who have probed our genes, our brains, and our social behaviour, this requiem to progress-as-usual also poses a challenge: to prove that making apes smarter isn't an evolutionary dead-end.
- Director: Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks
- Country: Canada
- Genre: Documentary
- Year: 2012
- Run Time: 01:26:38
- imdb Score: 7.1/10 (174 votes)
- Language: English | Portuguese
- Rating: Not Rated
- Cast:
J. R. Jones - CHICAGO READER
"Fewer resources, more poverty. Is that anyone's idea of progress on this planet? This visually impressive Canadian documentary, rich in expert ideas, is a terrific resource for those who think and really care to know."
Doris Toumarkine - FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL
"[A] truly disturbing documentary, which pretty much argues that human beings are hard-wired to self-destruct."
Tom Keogh - SEATTLE TIMES
Toronto Int'l Film Festival 2011
Vancouver Int'l Film Festival 2011
Paris Semaine du Cinéma du Québec 2011
Gira de Documentales Ambulante 2012
Planete+ Doc Film Festival 2012