Josh Fox
While ‘don’t worry, be happy’ isn’t exactly the soundtrack for How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change, the new film by Josh Fox is surprisingly uplifting when you consider its message: we’ve neglected dealing with climate change for too many years to avoid experiencing dire consequences. Shit’s gonna hit the fan — and, actually, it already is — and that’s just fact. So, what can we do about it now? A lot, if you allow yourself to be inspired by the people Fox interviewed on six continents in his travels to 12 countries around our world. Fox’s central questions — What is it that climate change cannot destroy? What is so deep within us that no calamity can take it away? — allow viewers to discover some real truths about the resilience and courage and love of human beings. And then, if Fox is successful, you’ll be inspired to get busy.
Fox is the founder and artistic director of International WOW Company, a film and theater company that works with actors and non-actors from diverse cultural backgrounds. Since 1996, International WOW has received numerous awards and grants, including the 2011 Ono/Lennon Grant for Peace and five grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2008, Fox completed his first feature film and has since conceived, written, directed and/or produced over 30 productions around the world, including Gasland, Parts I and II.
How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and it will be shown, free of charge, on Wednesday, March 16 at Onteora High School. Fox will be there for a no-doubt lively Q&A session.
“It’s the best film I ever made,” Fox said in response to my effusive praise, “and I’m happy when anyone agrees with me. The people in the film are all so extraordinary. As a filmmaker, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. It’s more like an action/adventure movie than a documentary.”
And it is — both action and adventure — in the best sense of the words: It’s hard to imagine that anyone could watch this film and not feel compelled to take some action, however small, on behalf of our planet. And, the adventure part? Well, maybe you can’t travel to the Amazon Rainforest to stop clear cutting or join the Pacific Climate Warriors who set out in their hand-carved canoes to stop coal freighters off the coast of the Marshall Islands. But you can take a cue from the daily ritual of the people who live on the Island of Tanna as they gather each day to join hands and dance around a giant banyan tree.
The movie builds on the central importance of community and working together to take ownership, create solutions and take care of each other. Locally, we’ve seen it happen — when neighbors came together to help one another after Hurricane Irene devastated many of our homes, when citizens banded together to make Niagara Bottling Company feel so unwelcome they dropped their bid to make a profit from our water supply at Cooper Lake — and the film reinforces the necessity of strong human bonds to surmount challenges.
“Who would think ‘dance party’ at the end of a climate movie? But people were literally dancing in the aisles at Sundance and at community screenings in Utah,” says Fox. “I feel encouraged by audience reaction, and that’s why it’s so important to tour with the movie. My ambition as a filmmaker was never to make a big movie. The movie was for the grassroots, and created within that spirit. It grew up inside the activist tradition.”
But, he cautions, “You have to make damn sure that your views are not influencing your journalism. Time and again, interviews with people in the field were affirmed by science. Overwhelmingly. The fossil fuel industry has tried so hard to obscure (the facts), but I say, ‘why argue with the Flat Earth people?’ The people talking on screen in How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change are all so reputable — Michael E. Mann, Bill McKibben, Leslie Brown, Van Jones, the list goes on — and they’re actually creating a lot of the science. The amount of respect for them in the world is paramount. They’re telling us how far things have gone, how dire the situation is. It’s very scary.”
Not all the people in the documentary are the usual suspects because, as Fox points out, you have to follow your nose. “It’s an investigation, a journey of discovery. And, even if this is the first time you’re hearing about some of these people and their work, they’re leaders in their communities. So many films are essays,” he adds. “The filmmaker knew exactly what they were going to do. But, unless a film is vibrant and active and alive with questions, it’s not art. You have to go through experiences with people as they’re going through them.”
Twenty-five years ago, we let the fossil fuel industry and the politicians dominate all the conversations about climate, energy, fracking and more. Fox talks with the people who will give it to us straight. “We think of leaders as Congresspeople or whatever, but these are people who have found their way to leadership because they were compelled by the problem: the problem pulled into their home and they had something done to them.”
Fox understands this rallying point from a deeply personal place. When frackers arrived to threaten his community in the Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania, he made Gasland, Parts I and II, and was soon catapulted into the international spotlight for his critique of fracking and extreme energy development. Though he never went to film school (he was a theater major at Columbia University), Gasland I won awards from Sundance Film Festival (Special Jury Prize for Documentary, 2010); a 2011 Academy Award nomination for best documentary; and the 2011 Emmy Award for best non-fiction director. Gasland II premiered on HBO in 2013, and won that year’s Environmental Media Association’s award for Best Documentary; Best Film at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival; the Hell Yeah Prize from Cinema Eye honors; and was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy.
“Making films is similar to the training I had as a theater artist. It’s all storytelling,” says Fox. “Everyone today has the knowledge to make a film — we think in film language, we see images, look at Facebook — for better or for worse, we can all make movies using our phones. Gasland was the first movie made that way. Just pick up whatever camera is around and run with it.”
That populist vibe is a key part of effective activism, and one reason why he’s touring so intently with How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change over the next year (so tell your friends in other communities they can request screenings and contribute to the Kickstarter campaign too).
“There’s a lot of talk about ‘where do I move’ when this all starts happening, and I say, ‘anywhere there’s a strong community.’ But, more than that, (the effects of climate change) require a change in perspective. Community is more important than your property line,” says Fox, who spends time in nature, plays his banjo and hosts huge dinner parties for friends when he needs to re-charge and get inspired again. Music plays a huge role in his life, and he sometimes hosts nature retreats on his property. “It’s amazing how few people are familiar with nature,” he says, and you can almost hear him shaking his head over the phone wires. “We’re in for some trouble. This is not going to be an easy ride. Things are going to happen in our lifetimes. We’re going to see things we would never have imagined. We need friends. We need community. We need democratic structure. This is a team sport.”
So, he concludes, it’s time to “put on your dancing shoes, come to the film and get ready to work on this.”
“How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change” – a film and Q&A with Josh Fox (hosted by Woodstock Film Festival), Wednesday, March 16, 6 p.m., free admission (but please RSVP), Onteora High School, 4166 Route 28, Boiceville; https://www.howtoletgomovie.com and https://woodstockfilmfestival.com/events/fox.php.
