Phie Ambo and Pernille Rose Grønkjær – New Narratives in the Climate Crisis

Two documentary film directors will examine how interdisciplinary, with the greatest possible impact, documentary films related to the climate crisis can be developed and distributed. The climate crisis requires a change in our culture, narratives, and behaviour as people and not just a technological change. With that starting point, the project will create an interdisciplinary think tank with a focus on arts, humanities, and social sciences.

Period: 1 March 2022 – 31 December 2022

The climate crisis takes up a great part of the public debate and it has received a great deal of focus in politics in recent years, e.g., at the last Danish general election and through the Climate Act. The general population is very concerned about the consequences of the climate crisis for the future and for future generations, but they are not ready to give up what it takes to get out of the crisis or change the basic behaviour that has created it. We humans, therefore, continue with a behaviour that is well-documented harmful to ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren. We know it well, but the emotional and fundamental realization does not occur because we cannot really "see" it and we cannot yet really "feel" it. Natural science and technology cannot solve this emotional change and problem alone. We need the arts, humanities, and social sciences to come to the decisive realization of the profound change it requires of ourselves and our culture.

"To the extent that we want to navigate and mitigate the environmental and climate problems in the world, it is essential to start by changing something inside us humans. This 'inside us' is also called culture..." (Jens Kramshøj Flinker - DM Bladet)

Based on the understanding of the climate crisis as a cultural problem, this maturation project will create an interdisciplinary collaboration that can develop and enrich films, including distribution, that work in this problem. The basic idea of ​​the project is to bring experts from very different fields together and in that way create a “knowledge tank” and network that can strengthen in different phases of a documentary film's development, production, and distribution and thus sharpen the focus in the narratives with a view to creating greater change, stronger impression, and impact of our experience of the climate crisis.