Over the past few months, we’ve had a number of fantastic filmmakers come onto Climate Curious and give us very different and insightful perspectives on how films and filmmaking can both entertain and help audiences engage with the climate and environmental crisis. Inspired by these brilliant guests, I decided to delve into these films and more and start Climate Curious’s ‘Must watch movies’ list.
Climate Curious: Must Watch Movies
#1. Itu Ninu directed by Dr. Itandehui Jansen – an experimental sci-film inspired by sustainable filmmaking practices
Can sci-fi films be sustainable? This was the question Dr. Itandehui Jansen sought to answer when she wrote and directed sci-fi film Itu Ninu – a story of two climate migrants in 2084 connecting through letter-writing. In her Climate Curious episode, How to short sustainable sci-fi, Itandehui explained how she kept noticing the huge amount of waste being created on sets and this led her to research the sustainability of filmmaking.
“Actually, the footprint of filmmaking is quite large and a BAFTA report on filmmaking has discovered that an average tentpole production in the UK has a footprint of more or less 2,500 tons of CO2, which is the equivalent of 300 cars turned on during the entire year.”
Itandehui used the famous Star Wars robot, R2D2, to explain why Sci-Fi in particular can be bad for sustainability:
“There is research by the Open University, they calculated how much a physical R2D2 carbon footprint was and they also calculated how much the footprint of the digital version was – the digital version is six times bigger! So digital is not really the solution”
Armed with this knowledge, she decided to film Itu Ninu with old school ways of filmmaking, such as using natural lights and not building sets. As the film focuses on two climate migrants in 2084, she felt it was appropriate the film was not just carbon neutral but also carbon friendly. They partnered with We Are Albert (the home of environmental sustainability for the screen industries) to track the carbon emissions of the film – and it was only 1 tonne of CO2 – a remarkable achievement and proving climate films can practice what they preach!
#2. Climate Criminals? directed by Becky Burchell and Sophie Austin – Discover the truth about frontline activists the media doesn’t want to show
On Becky and Sophie’s podcast episode, Who are the real ‘Climate Criminals’?, they shared why they focused their documentary on the frontline climate activists being prosecuted for their protest actions. The film was really driven by Becky and Sophie’s desire to learn the truth about these climate protestors and if they really are ‘climate criminals’.
“I am aware that from my social media feed and from the media feeds that I listen, read and look at that I’m being told a particular story… one of the most important things that I’m interested in as a storyteller is finding the truth and not believing everything I read.”
What surprised them when meeting these frontline climate activists was the deep sense of love, care and community that propels them, but also how carefully planned these actions were to get people talking about the climate:
“A lot of times [peopler are] like, why aren’t you going after the actual climate criminals? Why aren’t you going after the oil companies? …And they did try that tactic for a while, but it wouldn’t get the press… in order to get the conversation high up the public and political agenda, they had to go for cultural icons”
Part of the film was to unearth and explain these theatrical protest tactics, but also to draw attention to the mainstream media and the new protest laws in the UK that are villainising these protestors. Overall it’s a powerful piece that reflects what stories about climate activists are and aren’t being told.
#3. The End directed by Joshua Oppenheimer – the Golden Age, post apocalyptic, musical exploring self-deception and isolationism
In his Climate Curious episode, Big Oil and the real story behind ‘The End’, director Joshua Oppenheimer explains how his film, The End, was inspired by a real life experience of visiting a billionaire’s bunker that he had bought to survive the apocalypse. The End is based on a family who have done just that. After making their wealth through Big Oil and then seeing the world ending due to the fossil fuel crisis, the family escapes to a sumptuous, salt mine cave bunker. Twenty-five years on, they live in total isolation in this bizarre life before a visitor turns things upside down.
Joshua explained that during his real life visit to this billionaire bunker that he couldn’t ignore the cognitive dissonance about this family’s decision.
‘The wife was clearly gregarious with her family at the very least. And I thought, how will you cope with your remorse for leaving all these people behind? Because she didn’t intend to bring them. I thought how are those relationships already being hollowed out by the eventual betrayal that you are kind of holding in your heart at this point?’
After this strange experience, Joshua decided to make The End with a focus on a family like this and the lies they have told themselves to make such decisions. Many folks might be confused why Joshua made such a dystopian film like this a musical. Joshua explains musicals are the ‘genre of a kind of false hope, really a despair that pretends to be hope’ and that as ‘quintessential genre of delusion’ this made sense for the themes of self-deception in film.
Ultimately this absurd and bleak musical might be for all viewers, but Joshua believes it’s part of building a more truthful conversation about the climate, our culture and our own behaviours: “You can’t solve a problem if you’re too complacent, too defensive, too frightened, or too ashamed even to acknowledge it.”
#4. Ocean with David Attenborough by Toby Nowlan, Colin Butfield and Keith Scholey – a documentary journey about the ocean for the nature doc lovers
We couldn’t do a list about climate films without mentioning something with David Attenborough. His iconic voiceovers about the natural world have made him a household name. This documentary follows David (now 99 years old!) on a journey through our ocean and marine systems, showing how beautiful they are, but also explaining the stresses they are under, such as overfishing and pollution. The documentary does remain hopeful – believing ‘if we save the sea, we save our world’.
Nature documentaries may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they do have a unique way of sharing key climate and environmental messages to the public.
#5. The End We Start From directed by Mahalia Belo and featuring Jodie Comer – environmental catastrophe meets a mother’s journey for survival
Google ‘climate films’ and you get a selection of scary looking catastrophe films that centre on some kind of extreme event – think The Day After Tomorrow or Don’t Look Up. These films then usually follow the lead as they try to survive a whirlwind of terrible events before hopefully reaching safety.
The End We Start From is similar and follows an unnamed Woman played by Jodie Comer, as she escapes a suddenly flooded London with her newborn son. The flooding and heavy rain spreads to other parts of the UK, causing mass panic and displacement, and forcing them to flee north.
I picked this one out of the catastrophe category because it’s also based on a popular book of the same name by Megan Hunter. The themes of familial love, displacement and migration feel all the more important when we consider how those fleeing climate disaster right now. Whether it’s people fleeing fires in LA or extreme flooding in Pakistan, climate catastrophe is already here. How we talk about and tell the stories of individuals fleeing disaster in different parts of the world will only become more and more important.
“You don’t deploy all these resources to make a cautionary tale unless you believe there’s still time for the audience to heed the warning”
These words from director Joshua Oppenheimer in his podcast episode speak to the core motivations of filmmakers focusing on the environmental and climate crises. The existential threat of climate and environmental disaster make all these films lean towards the harder stuff – dystopia, catastrophe, grief, loss, anger, injustice. Yet the very act of making films about these crises should be seen as hopeful endeavour – one where filmmakers from different backgrounds and parts of the world are sharing stories with the hope the audience will listen and make changes
This is just a very short collection of films and they cover really hard themes – but they do all come together with this hope that change is possible. May this be a positive note to take forward and know at Climate Curious we’ll be sure to keep you up to date with the films and filmmakers fighting for people and planet.
