"A Short History of Progress" was critically acclaimed piece that had a life as both a Massey Lecture and a best-selling non-fiction book. It's now been adapted as a documentary for the NFB.
The basic premise is that "progress" is not always a positive step and that there exist "progress traps" where a perceived improvement actually makes things worse. Traps may become so serious that they lead to the downfall of a civilization. The types of traps he describes include over-consumption of natural resources, over-population and the excessive concentration of power and wealth in the hands of oligarchs and elites.
It's the last one that becomes the central theme of the film. Although a number of the interviewees come from an environmental / biological perspective (for example, Jane Goodall and David Suzuki), the overwhelming focus was on economic arguments.
For me, this was ultimately disappointing. It felt a bit like a classic "bait-and-switch" tactic -- I was intrigued by the notion of progress traps and wanted more of that beyond a simple definition and ended up with 90 minutes on the description of wealth.
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