Like most people I have spent years avoiding climate change.
The concept was so overwhelming and there was so much urgent social justice work here and now that I simply turned away. On the occasions when I did see environmental films, be it WALL-E (2008) or THE ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH (2018), I found their nihilistic approach and post-apocalyptic aesthetics devastating.
What can I do? Recycle? Conserve electricity? Grow vegetables for two months of the Canadian summer? It all seemed so insignificant in the face of the scale of the problem.
But eventually there was no more turning away, and I started reading, watching and learning. Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate (2012) was the first book I read that was both somber and hopeful. The hope came in forms of activism, organizing, and local resistance.
In this context FLEFF is a breath of fresh air.
The enormity of climate change is, of course, a big focus for the festival, but the programming is a brilliant tapestry of films, panels, live music accompanying film, performances and more. Full of life, energy, beauty and creative and critical synergies, each festival is organized around a galvanizing and evocative theme like “Infiltrations” or “Mapping Entanglements.”
