Film Reflection: 'This Changes Everything'
Climate Justice, Digital Activism, and Gender, Prof. Frances Roberts-Gregory
By Cormac Madden, 5/3/2019
Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything is as much a film about climate activism as it is climate change, choosing to focus on the humans affected by and rebelling against the corporate exploitation of our world's resources and treating them as inspiring, much-needed heroes. As clear as their heroism is made, so too are our villains defined: the elite, the transnational corporations, the 20% of the world that accounts for 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, most likely, the viewer is complicit, as is clear when one of our presumed heroes, Barack Obama comes on screen. "We are drilling all over the place," he announces, and a viewer not tuned into climate politics could be forgiven for expecting a swift rebuke to follow. Instead, he declares, "as long as I'm President, we're going to keep on encouraging oil development and infrastructure," and any wool that could have pulled over the viewer's eyes is pulled off, the battle lines for our planet's future clearly defined.
But our heroes are not intimidated. We see activists and everyday folk from around the world fighting for their lives and homelands against capitalist and governmental oppressors. The importance of their fight is clear, as police, politicians, and seemingly every other weapon at the disposal of the empowered is used against them, resulting sometimes, tragically, in the death of protestors of the hands of police forces that represent the institutionalized capitalistic exploration/exploitation that is (more subtly) killing millions of people around the world. A number of the film's narratives relate directly to the themes of our course. For one, the fight of Crystal Lameman of the Beaver Lake Cree of Canada for the right to examine oil spills in her nation's legal territory is an excellent example of an indigenous women's climate activism, and underscores the film's David vs. Goliath message. Grassroots political movements in India and Germany demonstrate the power that political messaging around climate change can have, even in the face of strict, threatening opposition.
In the US, meanwhile, a conference hosted by the Heartland Institute is shown. "Celebrate! Climate legislation is dead!" a man announces cheerfully. On the heels of images of tragedy from around the world, this declaration is terrifying and enraging; how could anyone who knows the truth about climate change actually feel this way, the viewer thinks. But the message is clear: while people around the world suffer and fight, the viewer has probably been led astray, convinced that things aren't that bad, or even that climate change is a lie itself. And the underlying question that the film asks is also clear: Why won't you fight like everyone else?
By Cormac Madden, 5/3/2019
Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything is as much a film about climate activism as it is climate change, choosing to focus on the humans affected by and rebelling against the corporate exploitation of our world's resources and treating them as inspiring, much-needed heroes. As clear as their heroism is made, so too are our villains defined: the elite, the transnational corporations, the 20% of the world that accounts for 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, most likely, the viewer is complicit, as is clear when one of our presumed heroes, Barack Obama comes on screen. "We are drilling all over the place," he announces, and a viewer not tuned into climate politics could be forgiven for expecting a swift rebuke to follow. Instead, he declares, "as long as I'm President, we're going to keep on encouraging oil development and infrastructure," and any wool that could have pulled over the viewer's eyes is pulled off, the battle lines for our planet's future clearly defined.
But our heroes are not intimidated. We see activists and everyday folk from around the world fighting for their lives and homelands against capitalist and governmental oppressors. The importance of their fight is clear, as police, politicians, and seemingly every other weapon at the disposal of the empowered is used against them, resulting sometimes, tragically, in the death of protestors of the hands of police forces that represent the institutionalized capitalistic exploration/exploitation that is (more subtly) killing millions of people around the world. A number of the film's narratives relate directly to the themes of our course. For one, the fight of Crystal Lameman of the Beaver Lake Cree of Canada for the right to examine oil spills in her nation's legal territory is an excellent example of an indigenous women's climate activism, and underscores the film's David vs. Goliath message. Grassroots political movements in India and Germany demonstrate the power that political messaging around climate change can have, even in the face of strict, threatening opposition.
In the US, meanwhile, a conference hosted by the Heartland Institute is shown. "Celebrate! Climate legislation is dead!" a man announces cheerfully. On the heels of images of tragedy from around the world, this declaration is terrifying and enraging; how could anyone who knows the truth about climate change actually feel this way, the viewer thinks. But the message is clear: while people around the world suffer and fight, the viewer has probably been led astray, convinced that things aren't that bad, or even that climate change is a lie itself. And the underlying question that the film asks is also clear: Why won't you fight like everyone else?
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