I Am Greta (2020), a biographical documentary about teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, is now streaming on Hulu.
The film features unseen footage from throughout Thunberg’s rise to global prominence. It follows her from her initial one-person climate strike in 2018 through to the growth of a worldwide movement. I Am Greta culminates in the young activist’s wind-powered voyage across the Atlantic to speak at the UN’s 2019 Climate Action Summit in NYC.
Seventeen-year-old Thunberg has now been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, been named TIME’s person of the year, has given countless incendiary speeches, and has worked with world-renowned environmentalists such as George Monbiot.
The new film’s director and principal photographer, Nathan Grossman, is known for his exploration of environmental issues. He became friends with Thunberg and her family prior to her first climate strike, not knowing at the time what would happen next or what the footage would ultimately be used for.
As Thunberg’s recognition grew, Grossman captured her work meeting world leaders, making speeches, and protesting. But he also documented Thunberg’s time with her family, animals, and at home. The result is an intimate film about both Thunberg herself and the global struggle for climate justice.
“Greta said to me once that she was afraid she wouldn’t recognize herself in the film, that I would make her into someone else. When she watched the film, she said she recognized herself,” said Grossman in a statement sent to LIVEKINDLY.
“It was a pivotal moment hearing her say that,” he added. “It felt like I had achieved what she hoped for, in the sense that the portrait of this crazy year was true to her.”
‘It Is Not Sustainable to Live Like This’
According to the world’s leading climate scientists, radical changes must be made immediately to prevent global warming of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Even half a degree more than this will significantly increase the risk of extreme heat, poverty, and natural disasters for millions of people around the world.
The planet is already 1C warmer than pre-industrial levels. And climate change is disproportionately affecting (and will continue to affect) the global south. If the world is to meet its stated 2030 climate goals, changes must be made now.
“If there’s no pressure on people in power, then they can continue to get away with doing basically nothing. But if you fully understand the science, then you know what you as an individual have to do. You know then that you have a responsibility,” Thunberg told the New York Times earlier this month.
“Sometimes the simple answer is, it is not sustainable to live like this,” she said. As of today, Thunberg’s #FridaysForFuture movement includes climate strikes on every continent in the world apart from Antarctica.
