Ten years ago the now classic 'An Inconvenient Truth' docunentary with former US VP Al Gore was released. This week I was invited by UIP, the distributor of the film, to attend a private pre-release screening of the sequel of that documentary. 'An Inconvenient Sequel Truth to Power' with Gore was just released in the United States.The first film had the basic science to make a wider public understand and become alert on the challenges of Climate Change. I was so excited about the first film, that I took the initiative for my NGO ECOWEEK to show the film to students in more than 50 schools in Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Israel, and hundreds of adults for free. Then, in June 2007, I invited Al Gore to give his slide show to a packed 2500-seat auditorium in Athens, Greece.
It was a time of great enthusiasm and hope, led by Gore, inspiring more films on environmental issues - Di Caprio's 'The 11th Hour' and 'The Age of Stupid' being the most outstanding among them. Each one of these films expanded on the science and zoomed-in from different angles on how fossil fuels destroy not only the environment but human ecosystems as well. Each film also explored different strategies, combining great photography, people, and crowdfunding.
After ten years of growing hope - thanks to the Paris Climate Agreement - and great drawbacks - like the Trump administration new environmental policy - the new documentary is coming out on time to re-awaken hope and re-activate people.
The film opens with images capturing the vastness of nature in danger, then follows Gore in his exploration to Greenland and Miami Beach to see first-hand the results of Global Warming. Then we see Gore as he trains the next generation of climate leaders, we see Gore meeting the mayor of Georgetown, TX a town which is moving 100 percent renewable energy, and finally Gore's involvement in UNFCCC COP21 helping forge the Paris agreement signed by 195 countries and parties.
The new film is powerful and engaging. Combining great photography, real time videos of people rescued from drowning in floods, and terror attacks in Paris, this was an inconvenient wake-up punch in the stomach by a mature, philosophical, humane leader Gore. Gore has the leader charisma - I was privileged to meet him in person in Athens in 2007 - to be in the forefront of the global environmental movement. In many ways Gore expresses the same hope and determination mixed with concern that most of us feel about the environmental situation at the moment.
In 2008 ECOWEEK showed the first film to schools. It is planning to do the same with the new film. I was asked 'Is the film appropriate for schools?' Absolutely, yes, but for different reasons from the first film. The first film was more 'educational' with facts and diagrams. It had a didactic character to inform people who have no background on the basic environmental issues and challenges. This film moves beyond science and focuses on people. People and leadership. People who need to take leadership to become the next generation of leaders for the environment. Also, political leadership, where politicians need to put their priorities together and work out the fine balance between people's immediate needs and the larger benefit to humanity as a whole. I strongly recommend the film to anyone who has any concern about environmental issues, and wants to connect the dots about what is happening around us. Join ECOWEEK for screenings of the film.NGO ECOWEEK has initiated premieres and pre-release screenings of the film 'An Inconvenient Sequel Truth to Power' at Olympio in Aegina, Greece in August 28, at Lev Dizengoff in Tel Aviv on Sunday September 10, and at the Jerusalem Cinemateque on September 12 - the latter during the ECOWEEK 2017 international conference in Israel (http://ecoweek.co.il/) .