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If you haven’t heard, environmental and social justice groups are attempting to organize what they claim will be the largest climate march in history. Approximately 100,000 people are expected to attend a rally in Manhattan on the eve of a major climate summit at the United Nations, with similar marches planned for London, Rio de Janeiro, Melbourne and Delhi. The organizations supporting the People’s Climate March have been blanketing New York and London with subway ads, flyers, posters and other advertising before the march. On Sunday night, many organizers unveiled a new strategy for reaching people: A polished documentary film, known as Disruption, that details the climate crisis and the effort by citizens to push political leaders to act.
I have never seen anything like Disruption. Sure, there are many documentaries concerning climate change, and noteworthy ones include Inconvenient Truth and Chasing Ice. A documentary film has the power to change movements or support an existing movement, for example, the movie Gasland by Josh Fox which is about fracking, or the movie Food Inc. by Robert Kenner targeted Big Ag. However, Disruption seems to belong to a new genre of documentary produced with the intent of mobilizing people for a political march. It’s like an infomercial for a rally. Perhaps this has been done before and I just missed it. Anyhow, Disruption seems to be in a league on its own because, even though it’s propaganda of a sort, the film is so bloody great.
Kelly Nyks and Jared P. Scott are the masterminds behind this fascinating project that vividly explains climate change science, details global leaders’ futile efforts to solve the problem, provides insight into the persistent lack of action, and motivates viewers to replace their inaction with action. The appeal of Disruption is that it is like the 52 minute version of the handbook to climate change politics that comprehensively covers everything.
The film draws on the perspectives of some of the leading figures in the progressive movement. These include the climatologist James Hansen and MSNBC host Chris Hayes, as well as author Naomi Klein, CNN Crossfire host and Rebuild the Dream co-founder Van Jones, The Weather Channel’s Heidi Cullen, and perhaps the most well known of all, climate action educator and activist Bill McKibben. In addition, there are comments made by Harvard Professor Naomi Oreskes, veteran organizer Leslie Cagan, and Keya Chatterjee from the World Wildlife Fund who are all extremely livid towards the politicians.
I’m sure you recognize many of these names from the screen. But not like this. Cinematographer Tad Fettig adorned the stage for the interviews, and he lit them beautifully. We have Van Jones looking senatorial at the head of a dark wood table in front of a marble fireplace; Naomi Klein looks as if she is in the ideal writer’s garret, Leslie Cagan schooling us in the history of social movements looks like she is from a classroom and Heidi Cullen looks like she is explaining the science in a darkened ominous theater. A bearded James Hansen – filmed in what looks like the basement of some stone barn looks like a grandfather hipster you’ve always wanted. When someone starts talking too close to jargonic utterances, they get smacked out of the field by the snazzy graphics of animator Eve Weinberg.
(Heartfelt Gloat Alert: I am pleased to say that nearly all the notable talking heads in the film have appeared in Earth Island Journal’s Conversation section. From our Q&As, James Hansen, Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Van Jones, and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Chris Hayes just waiting for your people to call.) The interviewees do an expert job of laying out a dire warning about our planetary plight that at first seems bleak, and then immediately shifts to youthful calls for citizen activism. Here is Klein: “What happened in [the 2009 climate summit at] Copenhagen was the realization that there was no leader coming for us. It is us who must save ourselves.” Jones later comments, “Keystone XL was supposed to be a wedge, instead it’s become a base.” Hayes, who is still one of my favorites, provides one of the most succinct explanations for fossil fuels’ negative externalities that I have heard, and then follows that up with a heartfelt speech commemorating action: “There is no replacement, in the digital age, to human has-ones standing as one, hearts beating as one, voices raised as one, making a political demand.” Disruption is, above all, an organizer’s perspective of the climate crisis.
With a tick-tock soundtrack counting down, the film takes us through 100 days before the September 21 protest and cuts to 80 days before, then 58, and finally 14 days. We go behind the scenes to see organizers’ meetings, build-up rallies, and town hall-style events. In addition to the bold-faced names, there are community organizer interviews with Jeanette (Jet) Toomer and Eddie Bautista of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance, who, during a recent rally in Times Square, summer of this year, proclaims: “This is not just about the environment. It’s about the community. It’s about jobs. It’s about justice.”
This is filmmaking as a grassroots organizing tool a sophisticated effort to reach a generation that gets its news from YouTube. As Leslie Cagan reminds us, back in the day, political activists organized through phone calls and the postal service. Nowadays, they shoot professionally looking films, upload them on Vimeo, and share them.
If you, or your family and friends, are unfamiliar with the depth of the climate crisis issue, then “Disruption” will provide you with some knowledge. If you are already a part of the movement, you will, once again, be enraged by the willful negligence of the political elite towards the state of the planet. Either way, there is no doubt in my mind that you will be motivated.
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