Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, October 21: BEFORE THE FLOOD
Fisher Stevens’ look at Leonardo DiCaprio’s work as the UN’s environmental ambassador made its debut at Toronto last month. The film has also screened at BFI London and the Hamptons.
DiCaprio has been an outspoken advocate for environmental messages for much of his career. In 2014, he was named a Messenger of Peace by the United Nations, using his high public profile to raise awareness on the urgency of combatting human-made climate change. Stevens follows him as he fulfills his duties, traveling around the world to witness the consequences of fossil fuel addiction, while also reflecting on his own carbon footprint and the sobering reality that his efforts might not be able to affect any real change. While the film trades in the very familiar – covering topics addressed in any number of other environmental docs, from tar sands to melting polar ice to deforestation for cheap palm oil production – it makes effective use of its charismatic subject and his ability to open doors, gaining audiences with not only President Obama but Pope Francis, and, perhaps, leading his fans to pay attention and potentially change their habits. Still, as DiCaprio himself uncomfortably admits when chastised by an Indian activist about the developed world’s rampant overconsumption, that’s not likely to change…
what (not) to doc 