HOW TO LIVE ON EARTH!

HOW TO LIVE ON EARTH

Interviews with Benedict Cumberbatch (Presenter and narrator) and Jonnie Hughes (Executive Producer)

Hosted by iconic actor  Benedict Cumberbatch (‘Doctor Strange’, ‘Sherlock’, ‘The Hobbit’) and produced by Jonnie Hughes (‘A perfect planet’, ‘David Attenborough: a Life on  our  Planet’), ‘How to live on Earth’ is an ambitious, visionary feature documentary that explores our vital connection to nature and its role in our future. This is a phenomenal tour de force directed by Fredi Devas (‘Antarctica’, ‘Planet Earth II’) that shows how we can survive on our planet if we choose to partner with nature and not ignore it or fight it. It’s a cautionary tale about a sustainable future if we make the right choices. This is a true call for action and a very inspiring endeavor that needs to be saluted. This movie is now available on Youtube and a must see at once : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3mRsvFmWi0 . 

We were lucky to have a quick chat with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonnie Hughes:

Q: How did you come about making this film, what were your challenges and what are your expectations with this film?

Benedict:  During Covid I worked with Jonnie on another doc called ‘Antarctica’.  I have always been a fan of Jonnie and his team. He pitched it as something ambitious and something very democratic to be on YouTube. It was all about how you see the future, how to revalue nature and how to feel more human and connected. I was in from the get-go. I knew I was going to be able to do my own thing. Then when I saw the footage, it blew me away.  

Jonnie: I’m so grateful to Benedict who said yes. Our challenge was to make Nature a Hero. With this film we had a big argument, a big proposition to make. The Future really can be if we work as a species to use the intelligence in the right way, in order to become wise and intelligent. And work with nature rather than against it. Which we know how to do. To survive we need to understand and align with nature. It will then turn out ok. We based this argument on a lot of human stories around the Globe. We had an approach where we thought we could represent different types of future. So, the first sequence is from China with 50,000 people helping to pollenate the orchids by hand because there are no more bees left because of the pesticides used. Even so it’s shot beautifully, it feels wrong when you see it. And we filmed other future who seem right like walking around Singapore. They recognize nature is so important for our mental health. So, we are portraying different types of future, and the audience can easily understand which one we want to run towards. 

Q: What did you learn making this film and how did it change your point of view, your hopes and your fears?

Benedict: I knew about the social advantages about engaging with nature. I have seen inmates working with nature, bee keeping, and here it’s about rehabilitating Turtles in danger. The surprises to me are how the financial market is turning onto this idea that after 200+ years of post-industrial capitalism and where cost is being socialize and profits are privatized, we all are in this together. And the main thing that holds together is our nature; it’s nature and our relationship with nature. So, if we can look at nature not as infinite resource which we know it’s not; but if we invest in it and value it. With data sets probably provided by the stewards of ancient cultures and their wisdoms. If we put these data sets in a modern data set crushing AI to create narratives that point to the real value of these nature services. You can turn green to gold; you can see a new market opening. It’s the key narrative of our time, of our history. And it would impact everyone. Everyone is experiencing mass weather event, weather you believe it’s climate change or not. 

Jonnie:  The market is driving us towards the solutions we talked about.  The financial world knows everything is in jeopardy right now. We need to know to live on earth with the finance market in order to sustain growth going forward. It could be very soon a turnaround, a spin around, where all of a sudden, we align everything. Yes, finance and market and economy but also our lives. We can become a smart species that’s also wise and a species that’s beneficial to the planet rather than a detriment. It’s a very exciting prospect.