Environmental documentaries: a (new) campaign to influence politics?

Nowadays, the struggle against climate change is on everybody’s lips. Its causes and multiple consequences (pollution, cancers, refugees of natural catastrophes…) are well-known. Politically, the issue arose after the first Earth Summit in 1972, but for decades was discussed almost only in institutional circles. Films related to the subject were somehow academic - not really designed for large audiences.

This time is over. Recent environmental documentaries are campaigning, and the goal is simple: changing citizens’ minds. Over the past few years, a growing number of impressive movies have been released in theatres: some featuring a pedagogical-style of narration, others persuading only through images.

This year, the Rio festival is presenting an interesting programme of environmental films. Among them is Flow - For the love of water by Irena Salena, which criticises the growing privatisation of water - the cause of a future global war according to many. More denunciations can be found in That should not be: our children will accuse us, which describes the public health dangers of pesticides and praises the initiative of a rural French town’s mayor to impose organic food in the school cantine. Terra Madre promotes the international Slow Food movement, born in Italy, whose concept is to eat “good, clean and fair” food.

Besides raising people’s awareness, the trend is to encourage taking action, and so far it seems to be working, as civil society progressively emerges as a relevant counter-power on the global stage. Unfortunately, as the daily headlines prove, the struggle is never going to be easy. So a few films have even included celebrities to make the message stronger. An Inconvenient Truth, released in 2006, presented a lesson on climate change by former Vice-President Al Gore. The film was shown within several international organisations – including the United Nations and many Senates worldwide. It had such an impact that the politician co-received the Nobel Prize for Peace.

All of these movies criticise the way humankind behaves, whether the lead comes from CEOs of big multinationals or governments. And they have a wider impact than ever before in the new global media world. This was the case with The World According to Monsanto, an in-depth investigative documentary by the independent French journalist Marie Monique Robin on the pesticides sold worldwide by the American company. The film had bad effects on the corporation, which counter-attacked by calling the documentary “pure propaganda”.

Hopefully though these documentaries and initiatives will affect not only public opinion but also the actions of political leaders. Limp governmental decisions should definitely not be the official script of the next few years. The Copenhagen Summit on Climate change, organised in mid-December by the United Nations will be the most important international conference since 1999. The challenges are huge, but perhaps it will be a rare opportunity to prove how cinema can influence politics.

Pierre-Anthony Canovas