Film and Climate Change – the formula for a revolution?

Communicating climate change has long been a source of depression for many activists; from human stories that are reduced to numbers and statistics, to polar bears becoming the face of every campaign, the absence of those most affected by climate change in campaigns has been evident. Recently, activists have attempted to channel their energy through an alternative medium: film. But will turning to the entertainment industry successfully change the way the message is communicated? Or is the audience too narrow to make a difference?

While Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth attempted to shake the international community into action through statistics and The Age of Stupid followed the lives of groups of people from around the world who are suffering from climate change, a large gap continued to divide climate mediators, activists, scientists, and the general public. Undeterred, Slater Jewel-Kemker decided to weave the thread that connects the political, human, and activism aspects of the movement through her film An Inconvenient Youth. Through focusing on those most affected by climate change, young people, and their efforts to change the world both on the ground and at high level conferences such as the COP, the film has taken her all around the world. Four years in the making, Kemker wants to tell the story that make this “very scary issue human enough that people cant look away. When a friend from the Maldives shares the pain of losing everything she’s ever known or cared about from rising sea levels, I have to listen, and I’m affected. It becomes more than just numbers on a page, it’s a life”.

This isn’t the first time that the film industry has attempted to change international politics. After all, celebrities such as George Clooney were instrumental in bringing attention to the situation in Darfur, and played a key role in the birth of South Sudan. Is the industry that is known for starving young women in pursuit of perfection now afraid of waking up to a world of starving people?

Unlike climate change, however, the stories from Sudan were not only scary, but grotesque in a way familiar to Hollywood norms. They also had hefty studio backing, which allowed them to reach out to a wider audience through a single medium. Kemker’s approach is different – an independently financed film, she’s working from the ground up and aiming An Inconvenient Youth at young people. The aim is to “inspire my generation to stand up and demand change, to rethink their lifestyles and pressure their governments to do the same,” she explains.

Film isn’t the only medium being used to communicate climate change to the masses. There are numerous international movements that focus more on the human price of climate change than solely the science of climate change, including The Green Initiative, which raises awareness about climate change through art. Using everything from photography to fashion, The Green Initiative showcases art made by the young people at exhibitions around the world, attempting to reach every age range possible.

It seems that a web of methods has been cast as wide as possible in hopes of bringing people together on this crucial issue. Using art seldom hurts a political issue, nor does film. In the case of climate change, the message has been communicated in dozens of ways with very few listeners, one can only hope that film fuels the fire of climate revolution before the oil runs out.