Climate of Our Future

Climate Crisis Coalition

The 11th Hour Opens . Film Review by Manohla Dargis, The New York Times, August 17, 2007. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, the environment, blah, blah, blah, melting ice caps. To judge from all the gas-guzzlers still fouling the air and the plastic bottles clogging the dumps, it appears that the news that we are killing ourselves and the world with our greed and garbage hasn’t sunk in. That’s one reason The 11th Hour, an unnerving, surprisingly affecting documentary about our environmental calamity, is such essential viewing. It may not change your life, but it may inspire you to recycle that old slogan-button your folks pinned on their dashikis back in the day: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem… Written and directed by the sisters Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, and narrated on- and off-camera by Leonardo DiCaprio, who served as one of the producers, The 11th Hour attempts to stave off helplessness, and the nihilism that often follows it, mostly by appealing to our reason… The images in The 11th Hour are pointedly horrifying, not reassuring, pacific or aestheticized… Yes, it’s bad, but it’s not over yet. Many of those same sober talking heads also argue with equal passion that we can save ourselves, along with the sky above us and the earth below… It is our astonishing capacity for hope that distinguishes The 11th Hour and that speaks so powerfully, in part because it is this all-too-human quality that may finally force us to fight the good fight against the damage we have done and continue to do.” Trailer