If we push climate realities to the back of our minds and avoid discussing them, we will suffer the consequences. Yet, without empathy for us - the global audience - the odds we will keep climate at the front of our minds so that we can sustain a focus on climate action are simply not realistic.
Engagement with scientific reports, news coverage and political power are critical - but are far less accessible than cinematic storytelling. Roger Ebert defined movies as “empathy machines.” Movies are designed to have empathy for the audience and great movies are capable of providing audiences with a shared cathartic experience that can reach people’s hearts, change people’s minds and compel them to action. Inspiration is easier to sell than perspiration.
This ongoing collection of non-climate films and the climate conversation starters created for each will not solve the climate crisis, but we hope that it inspires those who are weary from climate reporting and news that lacks empathy, as well as those tired of human inaction, with a fresh approach to thinking about climate.
Underneath the science or the denial, much of what we face with climate change isn't actually new. And the challenges aren’t entirely technological or scientific. Much of it is the same stuff we have always struggled with and the focus of so many movies that already exist.
These movies have nothing to do with “climate.” And yet, their characters, situations and empathy-focused storytelling can help us recognize familiar struggles and imagine better endings for our current reality’s narrative.
We simply need to (re)watch these movies through a climate lens.
The mission of Climate Lens Screenings is to provide more empathetic pathways to more engaging climate conversations that will lead to more climate action.
“Thinking ecologically about global warming requires a kind of mental upgrade, to cope with something that is so big and so powerful that until now we had no real word for it … So we need philosophy and art to help guide us, while the way we think about things gets upgraded.”
Timothy Morton