nice_one_chris

Big Questions

Severely disappointed to see this film take home the win. Yes, formally great, Ok. However, in times of climate emergency and severe ecological threat, the narrative of this film felt exceptionally naive. Again, we are seeing the age-old trope of individual change and micro-action (in this case, walking instead of driving to school) offer a cathartic solution to the enormous issues of climate change. I am not suggesting we abandon our duties to the planet, but many of us are sick of seeing moral messages that shove ecological responsibility onto those with minimal means to make any substantial difference.

The fact that soft-ecological-solution-porn takes the top prize for NZ’s largest film competition worries many of us. The judges, whether they like it or not, are cultural curators, determining the fate of filmmaking and the way political issues are advanced on-screen. Why are they rewarding the exact mediocre solutions the state has advanced for the last decade? Have we not learned that we need to do more than what this film advocates? Where are the radical filmmakers? Has this competition weened them out?