The movie “This Changes Everything” commented on climate change and the way capitalism and consumers have affected everything we live with on our planet. One of my favorite parts of the film was that it opens with a confession from the author: “I’ve always kind of hated films about climate change”. She lists their faults: they’re boring, they’re presumptive, they always, always include shots of polar bears. The film also featured the Fort MacMurray Tar Sands in Canada where “the overburden” (pesky things like trees, grass, soil, clay) is being stripped from hundreds of thousands of square miles to get to the oil reserves underneath.” We’re introduced to the miners who are well-paid workers with no connection to the land nor to the indigenous people who call it home. The tribe’s argument is evident throughout the whole film yet the filmmakers don’t seem to make a clear case for these people in the film. There’s no depth to the tribe’s condition and kind of shows them in a cliche. I think the film tried to stray away from being another film about polar bears and “boring” but the way they presented their subjected didn’t exactly make it very interesting. I think they needed to find more depth in these peoples lives and what they’re going through and present this from a different light on the screen. Overall, I do feel like the film took an optimistic turn toward the end and invited young people to make a difference and have a voice. The implication that This Changes Everything is “going to excite and inspire in a way that climate change documentaries have failed to before.” However, it does what every documentary does and gives us only a suggestion of what to do with feeling bad. It had a hefty title to begin with and ultimately made it impossible tot fulfill what it set out to do.
