Published on Friday, January 27, 2006 by the Guardian / UK
Al Gore, the Movie, a Festival Hit
by Julian Borger
It does not exactly have blockbuster written all over it. The film is a documentary about Al Gore, the famously wooden vice-president and failed presidential candidate, wheeling his suitcases from town to town and presenting a slideshow about climate change.
Former vice president Al Gore and director Davis Guggenheim at the Sundance film festival. Photograph: Mark Mainz/Getty
Yet An Inconvenient Truth is getting standing ovations at the Sundance film festival in Utah this week. The festival guide describes the film as a "gripping story" with "a visually mesmerising presentation" that is "activist cinema at its very best". In Nashville, Mr Gore's home town, fire marshals had to turn away hundreds of fans trying to get into a screening.
The film's unlikely success may have something to do with the producer, Lawrence Bender, who also made Pulp Fiction. But it is hard to imagine two more different films.
An Inconvenient Truth follows Mr Gore as he undergoes the daily indignities of emptying his pockets and taking off his shoes at airport security screens, sitting alone in hotel rooms working on his computer, and warning audiences around the world about the imminent danger of global warming.
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