'A Tale of Two Cities' Inspires Vice's Film for The Global Goals

Charles Dickens' famous opening sentence from "A Tale of Two Cities" inspired this new film created by Vice Impact for the UN Global Goals, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," begins the film, narrated by actor Lupita Nyong'o ("12 Years A Slave"), as a split screen juxtaposes rich and poor urban areas. The film goes on to contrast the good--what's been achieved in the world health, education, equality and climate change--with the bad: inequality, war, divided communities, poverty, environmental disasters and diseases. The message of the film is that while many things have changed for the good, "Progress is possible, but not inevitable."

The film was created ahead of UN General Assembly Week in support of the inaugural Goalkeepers Events to be held in New York on Sept. 19 and 20 and was co-created by Project Everyone, the organization founded by Richard Curtis with the ambition to help achieve the Global Goals.