On impact oriented filmmaking addressing climate change and whether it is still a rather lonely battle

I was watching an episode of ‘Abbott Elementary’ a little while ago where the rather brazen Principal Ava waltzed into the teacher’s lounge to demand, “Why is it February and hotter than the devil’s booty outside?” To me, her line is the perfect example of the simplicity and precision with which Climate change needs to be woven into every single story we see today, because climate change is a part of everyone’s real lives. We need a shift when it comes to how we think about climate storytelling and how we think about impact – and that shift is finally in the air.

For longer than we can remember, cultures around the world have been ringing the alarm bell about how our modern systems are unsustainable and will lead to ecological collapse. For decades, western scientists have been saying the same. But when it comes to translating that science into the kind of storytelling that’s allowed in the mainstream – at least in the American mainstream – all we’ve seen for years are apocalypse movies or data-driven documentaries. The former, though entertaining, don’t do much in the way of hope or movement-building.

The latter tend to appeal to those who are already interested, and serve the useful purpose of deepening knowledge but similarly don’t often attract newcomers to the movement. And yet for some reason for a long time our imaginations around what sparks impact have been limited to scary narratives or scary documentaries. Both have their place but neither represents even a teaspoon of the full spectrum of impact potential that storytelling holds.

Here’s where I think of that line in ‘Abbott Elementary’. Here’s where I think of the solarpunk eco-utopia in Marvel’s ‘Black Panther: Wakanda’. Of Ben in Mindy Kaling’s ‘Never Have I Ever’ trying to keep up with Columbia undergrads on questions of climate justice and emissions in casual conversation. Of the wink of an electric car in ‘Fast X’. We’re starting to see Climate Themes Decouple from apocalypse and data-driven doc.

We’re starting to see mainstream examples of embedding climate as a natural part of world-building. This approach has far-reaching impacts because it allows climate into everyday conversations through mainstream media, making discussing climate part of the zeitgeist rather than the taboo or buzzkill it’s been to date. I can’t think of anything more impactful than equipping as many people as possible with the language and validity to feel like they can and should participate in the movement for a human future on earth.

It’s not just fear (i.e. from narratives of apocalypse or from terrifying statistics about melting ice caps) that can move us, but human story – dreaming, loving, hoping, fighting. Stories that move us, when embedded with climate themes, can be the most impactful, towards action rather than despair, conversation rather than avoidance.

When we redefine how we look to measure impact – or when we expand the avenues of impact we take into consideration – we realize that climate filmmaking becomes a far lonelier battle simply because layering climate action into stories is an immediately more accessible exercise. If impact and activism aren’t limited to a certain genre, a certain kind of person, a certain tone, then impact and activism can be spread generously across the kinds of media that people are already voraciously consuming. If you’re telling me I don’t have to change the course of the next general election with the might of one film but rather just leverage the reality of the world we currently live in to tell a story that moves, that I can do. That many of us can do.

Coming into this field as a storyteller was lonely for a moment. But I quickly realized there are countless talented folks out there with versions of this same vision: to see climate stories become a part of our mainstream cultural canon. Where we once might’ve been isolated from each other, spaces are opening up for community-building like never before. The energy that sparks from such spaces is a force to be reckoned with. To me, it makes impact-focused climate filmmaking the most exciting place to be.

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