Life on Earth Perhaps

Dir. Oliver Postgate, English, 1985

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Sun 8 November 2009 // 15:00 / Cinema

Oliver Postgate brought to life 'The Clangers' and some of the best-loved animated characters of the post-war era. Life on Earth is his most committed cartoon and in it he compares the behaviour of people with the behaviour of nations. It shows how war has changed over the years from a glorified national sport into a promise of global suicide and reminds us once again that it the development of military technology itself that has made war too damaging to be considered a viable military option. The perception of the film is clear and simple. If life on earth is to have a future, the nations are going to have to do what people learned to do long ago... set aside the trigger-responses of their fear and their aggression and come to terms with the obvious truth that in a nuclear world the nations must live together in peace or perish by their own hand.

Followed by a speaker discussion on nuclear disarmament with Nicola Butler, Deputy Director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy which promotes effective approaches to international security, disarmament and arms control.