How can environmental films make an impact?

By Nina Seale |February 6th, 2020

With public interest in environmental issues higher than

it has been for years, it is important to maintain the
momentum and build on people’s understanding and
motivation to protect our natural world. Nina Seale
explores how environmental films have been used to
engage people to make a difference for the environment.
On the deck of a beautiful French ship, sailors are sitting completely still, watching a swallow
resting on the planks.

This is the memorable closing shot from a short film called Le tombeau des épuisés (Tomb of
the exhausted), surprise winner of the Audience Favourite at the Good Natured Film Festival.
With its slow pace, hushed French narration and subtle music, it didn’t feel like a typical
conservation film. However, its power lay in its ability to remind the audience of their own
experiences; the connections we create with nature, no matter where we are.

When was the last time you were moved by a film or documentary? Can you think of any
which have made you reconsider your beliefs, or change your behaviour? What about
environment films- when you think of an impactful environment film, what do you think of?
Why do you think it made an impact? What is impact?

So… what is impact?

One answer would be change- a beautiful, moving film is distributed to a wide and diverse
audience who will duly be inspired and care enough about the cause to take action.

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But impact is complicated to plan, predict and measure. A film’s purpose could be to bring
an unknown issue to the global spotlight, in which case reach and public sympathy would
count as effective impact (e.g. Virunga shedding light on the threats of war, poaching and oil
exploration on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park). But if a film is re-
addressing a well-known issue, the impact would be further along the chain: looking at
creating systems change (e.g. Blue Planet II inspiring viewers to move away from single-use
plastics).

So, when creating their story and impact plan, filmmakers need to truly understand what
what change would look like, who would implement it, and how, in order to make a film that
will really make a difference.

The right audience

An important part of this is audience. Is the film aiming for widespread behaviour change (a
larger, more diverse audience) or specific actions such as policy change or changing the
practices of an industry? Will the film reach the right people, or is the film asking the
audience to put pressure on decision-makers?

After the release of The Cove, a controversial 2009 documentary on Taiji dolphin drive
hunting, international outrage put pressure on Japanese aquariums to stop acquiring
dolphins caught in Taiji’s annual hunts. However, the Hollywood caper/spy thriller feel of the
documentary which made it so appealing to Western audiences alienated the Japanese
audience and distribution plans in Japan were repeatedly met by protesters.

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An example of a far more targeted and bottom-up approach is the campaign surrounding
the 2012 documentary about climate change Chasing Ice. Their strategy was to take the film
to one community (Ohio’s 12th congressional district, United States) and use it as a tool to
engage the public to change the mind of their Congressman, known climate change denier
Pat Tiberi, who consequently made a statement about the global importance of climate
action.

It is all very well to shed light on an issue, but a million views in the United States for a film
about an issue happening on the other side of the world is perhaps not the best way to
direct local change and can alienate the subjects of the film.

Emotional connection

Even though many of the factors which determine impact happen after the film is made
(distribution, media coverage, lobbying etc.), the film itself has to stir the audience. For this,
the film needs to create an emotional connection between the audience and the subject/s,
and often this requires focusing on the story of one, or a select few, individuals.

Thank You For The Rain is an example of a film which used the story of one man, Kenyan
smallholder farmer and environmentalist Kisilu Musya, to humanise the climate crisis. The
film had a very ambitious impact strategy. It delivered extraordinary results, both on a local
scale with Musya’s fellow Kenyans and on a global scale, closing the gap between Musya and

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international influencers, policymakers, funders, and institutional leaders to facilitate global
systems change and support local climate action in Kenya.

But how did it manage to engage the emotions of such different audiences? The founder of
the project, Norwegian filmmaker Julia Dahr, decided to make Musya a co-director and
therefore have creative control. He was empowered to tell his own story, and so each viewer
of their diverse target audience experienced the crippling drought and following violent
storm which tore his home apart through his eyes.

Creating such a connection with a previously unknown individual is an incredible feat. Many
high-budget environmental films use well-known faces to establish a personal connection
with their audience, such as An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore), Before the flood (Leonardo di
Caprio), and Our Planet (Sir David Attenborough). In addition to giving the film credibility, it
also gives them an edge on distribution, as the well-known name can attract a much larger
audience.

Nothing stands alone

There are many beautiful and emotive films about social and environmental issues which
have come and gone without creating much of a ripple, or the desired impact. Even if a film
is widely watched, nothing stands alone. When examining the films which have created the
biggest impact, almost all of them are supported by campaign/s that may have been going
on for years before release (e.g. Blue Planet II), and/or drive action after (e.g. Blackfish).

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Blue Planet II is widely hailed for creating a tidal shift in behaviour and policy change on
single-use plastics. After the final episode was aired in December 2017 which, after six
episodes of building up audience wonder for ocean wildlife, showed the impact of
microplastics and pollution on ocean wildlife, including an albatross chick killed by a plastic
toothpick. Following this, there has been a huge shift in public conversation around plastic,
leading to increased attendance for beach-clean-ups, an explosion in the use of reusable
products like water bottles and coffee cups, and legislative change (including a UK ban on
plastic straws, cotton buds and stirrers and an EU ban on selected single-use plastic items for
which non-plastic alternatives exist).

But even though the last episode of Blue Planet II catalysed this change, years of research
and campaigning about the issue and how to tackle had gone before, and these were
suddenly thrown to the fore by the media explosion following its release. Another good
example is BlackFish, a film about how the treatment of captive killer whales in Sea World
had caused the death of a senior trainer, which was followed up by a campaign to stop Sea
World breeding and showing captive killer whales (which was successful by March 2016).

Ones to watch

Climate change has moved up the global agenda, with media and protests putting pressure
on decision-makers to reduce emissions and divest from fossil fuels. However, at
Synchronicity Earth we don’t want to see the sister issue, biodiversity loss, falling by the
wayside.

This is why we’re excited to see what new media platforms like Waterbear, Uproar and Key
Conservation will bring in terms of inspiring and empowering people to take action for
conservation. We are also interested to see the impact of bigger platforms such as Netflix,
Disney and Apple, who are investing in more wildlife programmes. This year will see Netflix
release Attenborough’s next impact documentary A Life On Our Planet in April, and we can
also look forward to a collaboration between the Discovery Channel and the BBC Natural
History Unit, following the stories of Channel’s Wildlife Warriors (previously announced as
The Red List).

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Film can be a powerful tool to change narratives around nature and biodiversity loss.
Understanding more about audience and impact can help to drive support for the urgent
and effective conservation work going on around the globe.

Climate change activists storm red carpet at

Venice Film Festival
By Marie-Louise Gumuchian

VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Hundreds of demonstrators took over the red carpet at the
Venice Film Festival for several hours on Saturday, demanding action to fight climate
change and a ban on cruise ships entering the lagoon city.

Wearing white boiler suits, the roughly 300 protesters sat on the red carpet where
Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson and Joaquin Phoenix have
premiered their latest films during the 11-day event.

Waving banners that read ‘Our home is on fire’ and ‘No to cruise ships’, the
protesters sat outside the main festival venue and chanted slogans, surrounded by
police.

“We want to address the topic of the climate crisis, we think that it is more important
than anything that we can see in the world now,” said Chiara Buratti, a member of the
Venice anti-cruise ship committee, adding the demonstrators wanted celebrity
backing for their cause.

The protesters arrived in the early morning but left peacefully several hours later,
around 1200 GMT.

Saturday is the last day of the festival, held on the Venice Lido, and the winner of the
Golden Lion prize will be announced in the evening. Buratti said the demonstrators
were also planning a march elsewhere on the Lido later in the day.

The protesters, who belong to Italian and foreign groups, were taking part in a five-
day Venice Climate Camp event.

“The climate crisis has no borders, why should we stop at some border and just care
about some local problems that we have back home,” said demonstrator Sina Reisch
from the German group Ende Gelande. “We must see that the struggles are
connected.”

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The demonstrators got the support of rocker Mick Jagger and veteran actor Donald
Sutherland, who will walk that red carpet later to present their thriller “The Burnt
Orange Heresy”.

“I am glad they’re doing that because they’re the ones that are going to inherit the
planet,” Jagger said at a news conference to promote the movie.

“We’re in a very difficult situation at the moment, especially in the U.S. where all the
environmental controls that were put in place, that perhaps were just about adequate
say for the last 10 years, are being rolled back by the current administration, so much
that they will be wiped out.”

“I am glad people feel so strongly about it they want to protest anywhere whether it’s
the red carpet or another place.”

Sutherland said environmental protesters had “to fight harder” and “get as much
support as they can”, adding those calling for the plight of migrants also needed
backing.

“When you’re my age ... 85 years old and you have children and grandchildren, you
will leave them nothing if we do not vote those people out of office in Brazil, in
London and in Washington. They are ruining the world,” he said. “We have
contributed to the ruination of it but they are ensuring it.”

Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; additional reporting by Roberto Mignucci; editing by

Helen Popper and Jason Neely

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