We Are as Gods

This query would launch the modern environmental movement that continues to exist and on a much larger global scale. Brand also perceived how the laptop computer would change and take over our lives. He organized the first Hackers Conference, and perhaps his most incredible testament to thought, he published The Whole Earth Catalog. Today, those who knew the catalog dubbed it the Internet in print, and Steve Jobs referred to the catalog as Google in paperback but only 35 years earlier.

“…bring[s] art, science, and culture together with purpose and meaning.”

Brand is a multifaceted soul and still alive in his 80s. We Are as Gods directors David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg take great care in presenting him as a real person who takes hits to the chin for his out-of-the-box and progressive thinking even on the public debate stage. Unfortunately, he suffers from depression. Through photos, film clips, recent footage, and so much more, the filmmakers leave no stone unturned in their fascination with Brand. They even include Brand’s friend Brian Eno for the film score, which only adds another layer of progressive thinking bringing art, science, and culture together with purpose and meaning.

For the average human, you cannot help but adore Brand, as he is a person whose witty humor, hippie spirit, and gift for scientific and intellectual thinking are all rolled into one. We Are as Gods presents an incredible amount of information and journeys worldwide to infer how our mass critical thinking and day-to-day functions are in existence thanks to him. The film specifically details Brand’s most ambitious project of his life. His progressive ideas and work on wildlife conservation and the use of biotechnology for de-extinction to save ecosystems and habitats are very much under debate. Yet, Brand continues to move de-extinction forward, despite its critique, and he hopes to see an American chestnut tree back on the landscape before he makes his final exit.

We Are as Gods screened at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, 2021 SFFILM Film Festival and the 2021 Hot Docs Film Festival.