Film analysis: Disruption (2014) - Tess Riley

The 2014 documentary, Disruption, serves two main purposes.  The first goal of the film is to educate the audience regarding the reality, severity and urgency of climate change.  The film also serves as a call to action, aiming to mobilize people and motivate them to become more active and invested in the movement.  Achieving this goal of increased participation would then result in the buildup of necessary pressure on lawmakers to address this issue adequately.  The film relies on scientists, scholars, historians, and activists to paint a multifaceted picture of the environmental threats the earth is facing as well as the disproportionate way in which the impacts of these threats are being distributed.  The film uses the People’s Climate March, which was organized to take place on the same day as the UN Climate Committee meeting in Sept. 2014, to depict the increase in urgency and momentum as the film progresses and as the activists and participants get closer to their march date.  The film’s directors, Kelly Nyks and Jared Scott, contrast the passionate, fiery grassroots activists fighting for change every day with the seemingly uninspired, corrupt national leaders and lawmakers who not only inhibit progress, but actively support practices and policies that make climate change even worse.  

The film begins with a scene from space as an astronaut on Apollo 8 looks down at the earth from the moon.  This opening scene creates a sense of awe and wonderment at the vastness and beauty of space, but also a sense that we need a home base, earth, in order to make sense and meaning out of this massive universe.  As the only planet we know of that can support human life, it is vital that we, the audience, protect our earth. The film quickly explains that the green and blue, relatively health earth that humans once saw on film from space no longer exists.  It is stated in large, ominous letters on screen that, “The world hasn’t ended, but the world as we know it has.” In this new world, there are more floods, more hurricanes, more typhoons, more droughts, and all of these at a higher level of severity than in the past.  This is said to be our new normal now, as we have gone past the point of being able to return to our old state. The UN Climate Summit was created to ask leaders in different countries to prioritize climate change as a serious global issue. The People’s March represented the thousands of concerned citizens, activists, and other participants that fed the movement that forced this summit to happen.  The film makes it clear early on that all big movements, from civil rights to women’s suffrage, have always had people on the street visibly and vocally making their voices heard.

The film has an interesting and effective balance of scientific evidence amplified by emotionally impactful images and testimonies.  Both current and historical figures in science and environmental justice take turns explaining the basic concepts of climate change that are needed to understand its impacts on our world, as well as what these phenomena look like in action today.  For example, the film explains the significance of Fourier and his work on the greenhouse effect, then demonstrates how these trapped gases result in higher global temperatures, rising sea levels, and ultimately more intense storms. The film is able to explain these complex concepts by grounding them in real life examples, as well as highlighting key words such as “planetary energy balance,” or the amount of CO2 in the air, in big bold letters to communicate to the audience that it is an important concept to understand.  This adds to the educational aspect of the film. The film is very successful in the way in which is takes earlier research on the effects of climate change and makes it relevant to today, and to people who may not be interested or particularly knowledgeable in areas of science. The film achieves this by demonstrating how early post-industrial revolution trends, such as the Keeling curve, continue to increase. Some of their facts however, could have been more specific. While it makes sense to summarize the findings of the Keeling curve as a continuous rise in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution, the follow-up fact was a bit more ambiguous, stating that one of four CO2 molecules in the air today is put there by “us”.  This kind of phrasing is confusing because it leaves the audience wondering who “us” is: people in the United States? People in industrial, capitalist nations? People all over the world?

One motif present in the film is the concept of “uncharted territory”, or the idea that since the entire atmosphere has changed, every climate event from here on out is now based on a new atmospheric context and therefore going to have more severe consequences.  This is grounded for the audience in real life climate events, such as the recent typhoon that devastated the Philippines. This event served as a major breaking point in the discussion around climate change in terms of proving the immediacy and severity of the situation.  This particular storm serves as a warning that this level of destruction could become a way of life if action is not taken. Each subsequent storm referenced further symbolizes the reality and urgency of climate change.

Another recurring theme of the film is the unequal distribution of the impacts of climate change.  The People’s Climate March ends to address these issues, citing the fact that there can be no climate justice without racial justice.  The film also focuses on the importance of groups of activists such as these, explaining that even when there seems to be some momentum and media attention, such as with the IPCC, things tend to fall apart and no real changes are committed to by lawmakers.  Even the lawmakers who say they believe in climate change, based on evidence provided to them by scientists, tend to be contradictory in their words of support versus their lack of action on the policy level. An accepted but also proven truth in this film is the fact that the government is too corrupt in its current state to adequately address climate change on its own, which makes things like the People’s Climate March all the more vital.  People need to see other people acting to get inspired to be involved and stop being bystanders. The film explains a tactic used by activists, but that is also employed by the filmmakers. They try to relate a very scientific matter in an emotional way to engage both sides of the brain and move people into action.