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Klein Asks:
What If Confronting the Climate Crisis Is Our Only Chance to Build a Better World?

A documentary based on Naomi Klein’s 2014 book, This Changes Everything, a scathing indictment of capitalism as the driver of our current climate crisis, premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 13.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 10 years ago | About a 3 minute read

A documentary based on Naomi Klein’s 2014 book, This Changes Everything, a scathing indictment of capitalism as the driver of our current climate crisis, premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 13.

Crystal, a young indigenous leader in Tar Sands country, as she fights for access to a restricted military base in search of answers about an environmental disaster in progress.
Mike and Alexis, a Montana goat-ranching couple who see their dreams coated in oil from a broken pipeline. They respond by organizing against fossil fuel extraction in their beloved Powder River Basin, and forming a new alliance with the Northern Cheyenne tribe to bring solar power to the nearby reservation.
Melachrini, a housewife in Northern Greece where economic crisis is being used to justify mining and drilling projects that threaten the mountains, seas, and tourism economy. Against the backdrop of Greece in crisis, a powerful social movement rises.
Jyothi, a matriarch in Andhra Pradesh, India who sings sweetly and battles fiercely along with her fellow villagers, fighting a proposed coal-fired power plant that will destroy a life-giving wetland. In the course of this struggle, they help ignite a nationwide movement.

Throughout the film Klein lays the groundwork for her most controversial and exciting idea: "that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.”

Unlike many works about the climate crisis, the filmmakers insist this is not a film meant to scare the audience into action: it aims to empower and inspire.

“Will this film change everything?” the site says. “Absolutely not. But you could, by answering its call to action.”

After premiering in Toronto on Sunday, This Changes Everything will begin showing in U.S. theaters and become available on iTunes on Oct. 20.

Speaking of calls to action, Naomi Klein was among 100 signatories of a recent call for mass mobilization — on the scale of the abolition of slavery and anti-apartheid movements — to trigger “a great historical shift” required for concrete climate action at COP21 in December. As part of its manifesto, the group — which also includes Bill McKibben, Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky and dozens of artists, journalists, scientists and academics — also called for an end to government subsidies for and global reliance on fossil fuels.