Ronald Wright's thin, obvious tract, A Short History of Progress, a one-note complaint about how mankind has gone wrong — ecologically, technologically, and economically — in the name of "progress," has been turned into a preach-to-the-converted National Film Board documentary. Despite prestigious talking heads like Margaret Atwood, Jane Goodall, and Stephen Hawking, there is nothing new here beyond what every conscientious liberal already knows is wrong with the world. Alas, this work of Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks is one of those annoying runaway films in which every on-camera point is an excuse to cut to gratuitous, expensive images. Government waste? It starts with Canadian tax dollars for this unnecessary documentary.
