Who Farted? (2019)

(On TV, March 2022) I’m not going to cry bait-and-switch considering that “climate change” is part of the film’s promotional material, but if you’re watching Who Farted? for its title and classification as a documentary, do understand that you’re not going to get an all-flatulent all-comic 90 minutes. It takes five minutes for writer-director-star Albert Nerenberg to take the first of the film’s wild tonal swerves from comedy to dour pessimism: As a classroom listens to a presentation of the science of farting, the question of methane emissions from cow farts gets brought up and announces the film’s main focus on global warming. While Who Farted? has amusing episodes (about the social shaming of farting, the intimacy of couples farting in each other’s presence, the legacy of Le Petomane, the annual Festival of Farts, and the vulgarity of flatulence reminding us of our animal natures), the majority of the film ends up being about global warming—and not the fun sort of global warming discussion: the kind of documentary that gives a segment to someone seriously claiming that humanity will be extinct by 2027, maybe 2026. There are striking images along the way: Nerenberg himself cuts a memorable figure in his omnipresent suit, especially as he walks through flooded streets. My own Gatineau hometown gets a few moments of the film as it examines the aftermath of the 2018 tornadoes that destroyed one of the city’s neighbourhoods. But Who Farted? becomes steadily disconnected from its own starting point as it goes on. Cow farting is revealed to be a smaller source of methane gas than cow burping (now there’s a scoop for you), but then again agriculture is dwarfed by the emissions of the world’s most polluting corporations—an idea almost immediately abandoned in favour of more flatulent material. It’s enough to make you wonder what was the point of the documentary—as if the initial premise that got funding for the film went awry as more facts were uncovered, and all was left was the original pitch even if it didn’t make sense anymore. The result has to be one of the most disappointing documentaries I’ve seen so far on the otherwise solid Documentary Channel: it’s an unstructured, undisciplined mess that feels as if it salvages something out of two grab-bags of unrelated material. The cinematography has its moments (especially through its use of drone cameras) and I like Nerenberg’s presence as a host, but this doesn’t compare favourably to his previous You Are What You Act. There are probably two better movies in Who Farted?, but right now they’re strangling each other to a disappointment.