“System change not climate change” is something you often hear shouted at a climate protest. This week we release a documentary that tries to unpack this. This is the second film I’ve produced with Global Documentary. The first, The Race is On: Secrets and Solutions of Climate, was released in 2019. It ended up doing quite well having screenings across the world. Making the film was for me a new experience and a lot of hard work. I remember after the very final edit was done saying that I never wanted to do that again. But here we are in 2025… Somewhere along the way director Paul Maple convinced me to put on a jacket and walk around the streets and countryside of the UK doing pieces to camera (I did my best to not replicate Charlie Brooker’s savage critique of this particular TV trope).
Fortunately, Paul was also able to get fantastic contributions about degrowth economics, policy and politics, activism, climate adaptation, and history. The net result is in some ways a new type of climate change documentary. It acknowledges that dangerous climate change is here and very likely to get worse. But it doesn’t give up, it doesn’t shy away from seemingly impossible politics. By being honest about the scale of the challenge we face, it helps force open a conversation on how we could really change our societies.
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