“Zeitgeist: Moving Forward”, by director Peter Joseph, is a feature length documentary work which presents a case for a needed transition out of the current socioeconomic monetary paradigm which governs the entire world’s society. The subject matter transcends the issues of cultural relativism and traditional ideology and moves to relate the core, empirical “life ground” attributes of human and social survival, extrapolating those immutable natural laws into a new sustainable social paradigm, a “Resource-Based Economy”.
The director, producer, writer, cinematographer, composer, editor, and narrator of the work, Peter Joseph, was inadvertently brought into recognition within the documentary film community with his award winning, controversial, 2007 work “Zeitgeist: The Movie” which obtained over 100,000,000 views online during the first year of its publication. This film was not a film at all in its original conception, but become one after it achieved global acclaim. In 2008, a sequel to the work, entitled “Zeitgeist: Addendum”, premiered at the Artivist Film Festival in Hollywood. As with its predecessor, the award winning “Addendum” was a huge viral internet phenomenon obtaining over 50,000,000 views within its first year. After the release of this sequel, Joseph then founded a social movement inspired by the public reaction – called “The Zeitgeist Movement”. This global organization, with now over half a million subscribers across 200 countries, works to begin a transition of culture into a new sustainable economic paradigm; “Zeitgeist: Moving Forward” is, in part, a media expression of the same focus. “The Zeitgeist Movement” is an extension of “The Venus Project”- an organization established by industrial designer – Jacque Fresco – which is also featured in the film. “Zeitgeist: Moving Forward” is the third installment in what has now become a cultural film series project which continues to consider the current “Zeitgeist” – which means “The Spirit or Awareness of the Time” or culture.
The film was released in 60+ countries and in 20+ languages starting January 15. This large scale release was not associated with any major distributor. Part of the counter-culture expression of this approach is to bypass all corporate media involvement and utilize independent groups, in a non-profit manner, which will show the work in their respective regions.
The film features experts in the fields of public health, anthropology, neurobiology, economics, energy, technology, social science and other relevant subjects which relate to social operation and culture. The three central themes of the work are Human Behavior, Monetary Economics, and Applied Science. Put together, the work creates a model of understanding the current social paradigm; why it is critical to move out of it – coupled with a new, radical, yet practical social approach based on advanced understandings which would resolve the current social woes facing the world today.
One of the unique attributes of this work, which separates it in style from most documentaries, is that it has a parallel dramatic/cinematic theme, with notable actors, which abstractly plays out various gestures related to the overall message of the film. The work also vigorously employs numerous 2D and 3D visual abstracts/animations, while returning to the standard, traditional documentary orientation as the foundation.
