Extinction Rebellion New York City, 2020, Experimental Short Film
“Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.”
- Edward Abbey
Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that uses non-violent direct action to pressure governments to combat the climate and ecological emergency. The movement is an experiment in political-aesthetics and video plays an important role in the dissemination of its identity and tactics. This film has three parts. Each features a non-violent direct action organized by the New York City chapter of Extinction Rebellion in 2019.
These are three of the dozen videos I made while participating in the climate movement throughout 2019. We designed actions to achieve maximum effect in both mainstream and social media. Many of the videos I made were cut and re-cut dozens of times by chapters of Extinction Rebellion internationally. The first video was invited by the filmmakers to play ahead of feature documentary "Anthropocene: The Human Epoch" at a number of major film festivals. In total the videos received well over a million views across social media channels. 2019 remains a high water mark of the climate movement in the US/Europe and Extinction Rebellion, along with Fridays For Future, was a major part of that effervescence. Unfortunately, some of the tactics changed at the time that I stopped participating actively - such as targeting paintings in museums. I put this didactic compilation together for a presentation I gave on political-aesthetics at Vassar College and subsequently decided to screen it at a handful of festivals.
Thank you to composer Ben Frost for supporting and inspiring this work.
OFFICIAL SELECTION:
7th Annual Manchester Film Festival (BIFTA Qualifying)
5th Annual Artist's Forum Festival of the Moving Image
10th Annual Richmond International Film Festival
2nd Annual United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Film Festival