Who Farted? A Documentary?
by Staff
(June 9, 2020 – Toronto, ON) This isn’t our national broadcaster reaching for new lows, but it might be looking to build an audience with the kids who like fart jokes and fart films. While the subject is serious, the take is more on the lighter side of documentaries. The serious issue: the claim that the human race is “farting itself out of existence.” Renowned filmmakers Albert Nerenberg (You Are What You Act, Laughology) and Nik Sheehan (FLicKeR, No Sad Songs) have joined forces to bring us the new comical Canadian feature documentary, Who Farted?
Who Farted? is a frightening, illuminating, and funny journey through the absurd reality of 21st Century human survival. It takes audiences on a rollicking ride into understanding human emissions of all kinds – and also provides some possible answers to the Climate Crisis.
While watching his 12-year-old daughter present her science project in school, Nerenberg has a life-altering experience. The children describe how cow farts play an outsized role in greenhouse gas generation. As the methane contained in bovine farts combines with CO2 pouring out of the world’s factories, automobiles and airplanes, it seems we are farting ourselves to oblivion. A frightened student, voice quavering, asks: “Are we all going to die because of farts?”
It does have a serious side inspired when Nerenberg personally witnessed a climate disaster in his own neighbourhood.
Who Farted? features an intercontinental cast of best-selling authors, climate scientists and master flatulists, and suggests that understanding our place in nature is essential to our continued existence as a species. If we can’t deal with our own flatulence, how can we hope to comprehend the looming climate catastrophe?
The filmmakers turn their cameras on best-selling authors Guilia Enders (Gut) and Dani Rabaiotti (Does it Fart?); notorious Professor of Disgust, David Pizarro; leading climate scientists, including Europe’s Dr. Mojib Latif (Climate Change: The Point of No Return) and human extinction predictor Guy McPherson (Going Dark). Nerenberg encounters climate change crusader Al Gore, and consults fart liberationist Mathew Silver. He visits animal scientists on two continents and discovers the truth about cow farts. Finally, after a pivotal encounter at the World Farting Championships in Northern Finland with the world’s most flatulent man, Britain’s Mr. Methane, Nerenberg believes he has found a path to staving off climate disaster.
Who Farted? won the “Spirit of the Festival Award“ at the Red Rock Film Festival in the U.S.A. It will now enjoy its World Broadcast Premiere at 9:00pm ET/PT on June 20 on CBC’s documentary channel. Watch trailers and see more online.
