Agency - English program:.North West Centre. Agency:.Co-produced by Burns Film Ltd. and the National Film Board of Canada, with the participation of Telefilm Canada.

Composer, John Abram ; editor, Paul Mortimer ; cinematographer, Patrick McLaughlin ; executive producer, David Christensen ; producer, Shirley Vercruysse, George Baptist, Bonnie Thompson ; writer, Gary Burns, Jim Brown ; director, Gary Burns, Jim Brown ; camera operator, Brian Shier ; sound recordist, Igal Petel ; key hair dresser, Anne-Louise Landry ; key makeup, Lizane LaSalle ; wardrobe, Jenna Wright ; key set decorator, Lyne Chénier, Alain Rouillier ; sound supervisor, Pat Butler ; foley artist, Cal Harle ; re-recording mixer, Patrick Butler.

Cast, Paul Ahmarani, Liane Balaban, Shigeru Ban, Christian Bök, Alain de Botton, Marlene Dumas, Francis Dupuis Déri, Rivka Galchen, Richard Dawkins, Craig Venter, Jean Paul Sartre.

Recorded 2010.

In this entertaining film a journalist (Liane Balaban) meets "The Man of Today" (Paul Ahmarani) who, while a responsible citizen, is disengaged from greater society. He believes once he's dead nothing more matters! As an experiment to see if she can turn his pessimistic view around, the journalist sends him on a journey of enlightenment to prove that the future does matter. Traveling the globe, he finds himself in surprising encounters with great minds in the arts and sciences. Starting with an unexpected poetry reading and conversation with experimental poet Christian Bök, "The Man of Today" engages with architect Shigeru Ban, activist Francis Dupuis- Déri, philosopher Alain de Botton, artist Marlene Dumas, novelist Rivka Galchen, leading scientists and a ghost. Will the journalist succeed in turning a cynic into an optimist? Will it matter? What can one person do?

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Description based on online resource; title from title screen (National Film Board of Canada, viewed 2023-08-10).