FUTURE COUNCIL. Starring eight children, who are taken on a school excursion, and who interact to try and find a solution to climate control. Directed by Damon Gameau. Rated PG (Mild coarse language). 77 min.
Review by Peter W Sheehan, Jesuit Media Australia
The film tackles the issue of climate change from an unusual vantage point. Eight young children, from a variety of cultures travel together on a road trip through Western Europe in a vegetable-oil-powered, yellow school bus. Their goal is to better understand climate change, and to discuss and explore various solutions to it. The children are aware of the necessity to find understandable solutions, which have the potential to be further considered by influential companies responsible for large-scale pollution. The film is written by Damon Gameau and Jimmy James Wright. The children on the trip resolve to form a “Future Council” (for children aged between 9 and 16), which can guide companies in the future about decisions they might make on climate change.
The film pointedly considers corporate responsibility and environmental activism as they relate to climate change seen from the special vantage point of young people. All the children are environmentally conscious, very bright, perceptive, and expressively highly vocal. On the road-trip they interact with actual political leaders who know that climate change is a world problem, but the children voice different views from polluters on how the problem might best be solved.
The film has been screened at the United Nations General Assembly. The Director, Damon Gameau, is a well known social speaker from Australia, and this is his first feature documentary, which he has followed up by a another movie-documentary on Environmental Regeneration. Both films pointedly explore environmentally-friendly, ecological solutions, which address major challenges facing the world today. This film puts its emphasis on large Companies and Corporations responsible for the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, and the Documentary is distinctively oriented around issues debated by highly intelligent young children, who bond together amazingly well in this film. The film pays special tribute to the human spirit of the young, and asks viewers to imagine a brighter future for themselves and others.
There has been disappointing world-wide action on climate change. This film is a challenging educational tool for encouraging constructive and helpful dialogue and thinking about climate change among viewers, young and old alike. By featuring bright children eager to question, the movie has special relevance to fostering and facilitating “hope” to find and explore new ways forward.
Peter W Sheehan is an Associate of Jesuit Media