Worth: $11.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Roger Hallam, Gail Bradbrook, Clare Farrell, Stuart Basden, Larch Maxey
Intro:
… equal parts record of an historical event and XR recruitment video.
In April 2019, a group of environmental activists known as XR (Extinction Rebellion) took over central London for 10 days, blocking all major roads and causing a controlled kind of mayhem, cuffing and/or gluing themselves to buildings and public transport vehicles, all in the name of climate change awareness.
Their demands were few, as straightforward as they were optimistic:
1) Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate emergency
2) Zero Greenhouse Gas emissions by 2025
3) Government must create a citizens’ assembly on climate and ecological justice
After watching the issue of climate change go unaddressed for so long, XR decided that it was time for a more direct approach to see their demands finally met. In this fly-on-the-wall style documentary, director Leigh Bloomfield offers audiences a behind the scenes look into the day-to-day minutia of orchestrating and maintaining a rebellion of this magnitude: Opening peaceful dialogues with police, answering endless phone calls from the media, “activating” young members who can serve to create a public nuisance in the name of XR without having to worry about any long-lasting consequences on their arrest record.
The motley crew of XR co-founders, Roger Hallam, Gail Bradbrook, Clare Farrell, Stuart Basden and Larch Maxey, each get a shout out as their individual contributions are observed through the lens of those already in support of their cause. The issue brought to the fore by this documentary isn’t whether climate change is real or deserving of such a large-scale response (a subject that by all accounts should be long past debate), but rather whether those in power will be swayed by XR’s tactics of non-violent civil disobedience.
Bloomfield reframes the world-shaking events of those 10 days in April, bringing to light the bureaucracy and strategic planning that goes into keeping a movement like this alive, and in turn ensuring the safety of the thousands upon thousands of protestors who show up to lend their voice to the cause, or as the case may be, glue their body to the rush hour train.
As an organisation, XR lends a sense of identity and community to those feeling disconnected and powerless. There’s a sense of righteousness infused throughout the film, and while Bloomfield may not have set out to glorify XR’s actions, it does ultimately feel like equal parts record of an historical event and XR recruitment video.
To find out where and when the film is playing, or to request your own screening, head here: https://au.demand.film/conscientious-protectors-story-rebellion-extinction/
Thank you for the trailer, I hope to see the film on 1st September in Exeter. I first heard of XR in November 2018, joined and have been active ever since. I have huge admiration for Roger, Gail and Larch whom I know a little (I don’t know the others in the film), and I so look forward to seeing the film and getting thereby much more of a ‘whole picture’ than I have at present.