Thrive is an engaging independent documentary that presents findings of the filmmaker’s life-long quest to figure out a very fundamental question – why are many people’s lives a struggle, and what will it take for humanity to thrive?
Clearly, it is a complex and multifaceted question to address. The movie examines many subject areas in order to form “the big picture” of what is really going on on our planet today:
– Why is the gap between rich and poor widening?
– What is behind our education and healthcare systems?
– Where is the agricultural revolution heading?
– Is there proof of sentient life outside Earth?
– Do 5,000 recorded crop circles contain a message?
– How did the modern monetary system come about?
– Is the crisis of 2008 part of a larger economic cycle?
– Are people being manipulated by governments?
– Are global power and control being centralized?
– What are the latest advances in energy generation?
– What is the evolutionary path of our society?
– What positive life changes can individuals make?
In my opinion, Thrive is the best “big picture” documentary so far. While I don’t agree with everything in it, I was impressed by the wide scope of its perspective, and by how well it sticks to the facts – it is definitely not a “conspiracy theory” movie. I’m screening Thrive because it presents many important facts that our mainstream media fails to cover.
We will be watching Thrive at Laingholm Eleven on 25th of November 2012. Thrive is about 2h10m long. Click here for details.
If you can’t come you can still watch the movie on your own computer.
For those who find the information covered in the movie hard to believe (probably most of the viewers!), the filmmaker provides a fact check page that lists the sources of information and where it can be verified. Of course everyone is encouraged to do their own research as well. The movie goes in tandem with a comprehensive web site that offers additional information on the subjects presented.
Feel free to post your reviews and thoughts about Thrive on this page. I will also post my review after the screening.
Here’s my review:
I would rate this movie 8.5/10. I think a lot about the subjects presented in this movie so I also have a lot to say about my mixed reaction to the movie itself, after watching it few times in the last year.
Firstly, here’s what I think is great about THRIVE:
– The movie covers A LOT of subject areas within 2 hours, and brings information from these diverse fields together to form a coherent and credible “big picture”. Not an easy feat, and the movie does it very well. A number of viewers probably already know parts of the presented information, but most of them probably haven’t yet put all the pieces together to see the underlying pattern.
– THRIVE incorporates the challenging ET / UFO subject and draws upon the important work of Steven Greer. Additionally, THRIVE’s 3D interpretations of crop circles are truly fascinating.
– The movie incorporates a lot of great interviews. I have been reading up on the subject areas covered by THRIVE for a few years, but there was still plenty of interesting new content for me in the movie.
– The presentation of the movie is very professional for an independent movie, and the author clearly spent a good deal of his personal money on this project. Also, I haven’t seen any other movie that can cover what THRIVE covers without coming across as “another conspiracy theory movie”, while THRIVE covers more than most and still comes across with full credibility. Both the quality and personal investment are highly commendable. The filmmakers initially charged $5 USD to watch the movie online (which I thought was completely reasonable), but have consequently made it completely free to watch.
– In defence of THRIVE, some otherwise thoughtful reviews I read online say that “free energy” technologies described in the movie violate the second law of thermodynamics (energy cannot be created or destroyed) and therefore cannot exist. The “free energy” devices in the movie do not claim to create the energy out of nothing, but to convert the energy from “something” to a form we can use (rotation or electricity). This invisible “something” is not currently understood nor acknowledged by mainstream science, just like the radio waves were not understood nor acknowledged not too long ago. Essentially the above comment is similar to saying “our current science understands everything, therefore what it doesn’t understand cannot exist”.
And now to what I see as the main shortcomings of THRIVE:
– THRIVE exposes a small group of people to be responsible for large part of the world problems. While I agree that this group uses its power and influence to maintain these problems for their own benefit, these problems would not have been created or maintainted without participation of the people (the masses) at every step of the way. When there is a war, who obeys the orders without question? When questionable easy money is offered, who buys the stocks or takes out oversized consumer loans? Who votes for politicians that offer more free stuff in exchange for less taxes? Who buys unethically produced products? We do, the people. THRIVE makes it too easy to blame the “elite group” and see the people as inocent victims. This is an incorrect and disempowering perspective.
– The movie seems to imply that if “free energy” technologies were released and made available to people, the people would make mature use of freed up time and money. I think that if petrol and electricity bills disappear, in reality many people would still work the same number of hours and use the extra cash to buy more “stuff” and get fancier houses with higher mortgages. Without an internal shift people just do what they have always done. If we look at recorded history, I don’t think that there was a single technological change that made people act maturely and responsibly all of a sudden. Even with today’s available technology, if people were acting maturely and responsibly many global problems would not exist or be far less severe.
– The “Solutions” part of the movie spends too little time on everyday actions people can take, and too much time on the filmmaker’s utopian vision of the future. Positive visions are good, but I think that the movie could cause greater positive change by emphasizing the solutions that are “here and now” rather than in some distant imagined future.
Overall I think that the filmmakers have somewhat of a naive view of people and omit looking into human psyche to discover the true ideological root of the world problems within each human being. I think that individual change and personal growth is the only way to affect true and lasting positive change on a large scale. THRIVE is definitely a must watch to understand what is happening in the world outside, but the viewers must not forget to look at their own behaviour and psyche. Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011) is a great movie to watch after THRIVE because it intimately examines this internal realm overlooked by THRIVE. I will be screening it at Laingholm Eleven in 2013.
I’d love to hear what others think – feel free to post your opinion below.
I think this is a great review.
By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!!!
Hi Valera
It was lovely to meet you recently at the open day in Titirangi.
Certainly interesting what you have created here.
Although I’m a bit late to this Thrive party, having only recently watched the movie, I enjoyed reading your review.
It would certainly seem that people are continuing to play the victim and shift blame onto other people or “groups” rather than look themselves in the mirror. It is sad that there is such a large majority of people that are out of touch with their own vast consciousness and underlying strength within.
Here are two more documentaries that you may be interested in having a flick through . If you haven’t come across them already-
The movie ‘Origins’ highlights the extent to which we have exploited “technology” and the implications of our globally toxic environment to our health and happiness – http://origins.well.org/
‘The Collective Evolution III-The Shift’ also brings together some valid points on the current state of our world and the shift taking place within some. By identifying practical areas of reasoning that we can begin applying ourselves to in the service of change – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAE6zX5wlt4
Hope you enjoy!
Flow
Hi Flow, it’s good to hear from you!
Yes, my perspective has certainly changed from thinking that lack of information is the problem to seeing that lack of interest (people feeling resigned and cynical in advance) is the bigger issue…
I haven’t seen either of these documentaries, thank you for the links. I’ll watch them and let you know what I think
Valera.