Film reflection 2: This Changes Everything

The climate documentary This Changes everything is based largely off of the book by activist and author Naomi Klein.  This documentary truly gives a big picture presentation of the gravity and magnitude of climate change, highlighting frontline communities in Montana, Canada, China, and other places around the globe.  It aims to inform people, especially those in more privileged communities, that the devastating effects of climate change are already occurring in many places and many livelihoods and ecosystems are already being destroyed.  

The documentary clearly aims not to be a typical climate change film, with the narrator stating that they have "always kind of hated films about climate change." They also make a bold statement intended to potentially shock the audience and prepare them for what they should expect to be an urgent and direct call to action on climate change by asking if it is really possible to be "bored by the end of the world." I found this statement particularly impactful, as I do believe climate change is a desperately urgent issue, but I myself do not spend all day or even that much of my time actively fighting on this issue.  As a society, we get so distracted and consumed by day to day stressors and dilemmas that we neglect to place importance on issues that are not always immediately tangible or affecting us directly, but that will ultimately destroy and devastate us all.  Ultimately, the film does not necessarily employ any new tactics or angles that I have not seen in other media related to climate change, although as a standard documentary I think it is credible and cohesive.  

The film attempts to set itself apart by openly acknowledging the cliche image of the starving polar bear, seemingly trying to suggest that the facts themselves will be enough to inspire action and evoke emotion.  However, the film does use emotional rhetorical strategies in its own way by visually portraying the everyday tragedies that people in frontline communities are facing every day.  Despite the attempt to pull heartstrings to garner support, the film was successful in showing scenes that felt very real and raw especially in terms of depicting protestors and activists fighting to save our planet.  These scenes and interviews, in particular, did not feel scripted and also helped to bring the multi-faceted issue of climate change down to an individual, personal level that for some audience members may be easier to digest and relate to compared to broad statistics or references to climate phenomenons that they themselves may not have personally experienced.  

Despite succeeding in featuring individual stories, the collection of climate battles and protests featured players from all over the world, globalizing the issue and making it seem more urgent due to the fact that all areas of the globe are experiencing these issues and eventually there will be nowhere left to run to.  The film highlighted activists from Canada, Greece, India, China, and Montana.  These communities represent issues such as legal battles over indigenous lands, leaking oil pipelines, dangerous coal plants, and the destruction of wetlands.  The film very much emphasizes the concept of land and the fact that some of the people most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are in that position because they rely on local land and ecologies to fuel their livelihoods and local economies.  Klein also does a good job of tying the amount of carbon in the air to the current economic system that put it there and explicitly names that system as a huge problem to be dismantled and overcome before we can achieve climate justice. She connects this to a positive note of hope for the future, stating that "We can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better."