Cycle of films for schools on the theme of ‘the fight for the environment’

After the disappointment that was COP26 (and as we await COP27, scheduled to be held in November 2022), why not initiate a debate around the fight for the environment with the younger generation? With Kinepolis, organise a cycle of films for schools and raise awareness about the subject among your pupils, around some discussions suited to their age and their way of thinking! Here are some suggestions for feature films…

Erin Brockovich, a woman who is committed to the fight for the environment

When she falls victim to a car accident, Erin Brockovitch, a single mum with 3 kids, has to find work quickly to cover her medical costs. When she gets a job as an archivist at a law firm, she unearths a massive scandal. From that moment on, she will wage a long environmental struggle, denouncing the errors made in industry with complete impunity, until now…

Directed by Steven Soderbergh in 2000, the educational film  Erin Brockovich won numerous awards, including Best Actress for Julia Roberts at the Oscars in 2001. Along the same lines, Kinepolis also suggests the film Dark Waters by Todd Haynes, released in 2019, which features a lawyer accusing a chemicals giant of having released toxic chemicals into the waterways…

Promised Land, a perfect educational film directed by Gus Van Sant

Featuring magnificent performances by Matt Damon (Steve Butler) and Francis McDormand (Sue Thomason) in the lead roles, the film Promised Land by Gus Van Sant tells the story of two representatives of an energy company, who travel to a village in the country to try to persuade the farmers to let drilling take place on their land in return for cash.

An environmental battle based around the extraction of shale gas dating from 2007, which gets the discussion going: indeed, this feature film is the perfect educational film, in that it poses questions both through clearly expressed controversies and also through the things left unsaid but imbued with just as much meaning.

Wall-E, a wake-up call for the youngest cinema-goers according to Kinepolis

Released in 2008, the animated educational film  Wall-E paints a picture of a planet Earth transformed into a huge rubbish dump, on which robots compress the rubbish. There is only one robot that is still operational and continuing to go about his task, however: Wall-E. On the one hand, we see this representation of the Earth, drained of all its natural resources, victims of over-consumption; on the other, we are given an image of mankind, taking refuge inside gigantic spaceships, overweight and rendered stupid by their fixation with screens and their inactivity.

For Kinepolis, the environmental struggle of Andrew Stanton is striking: through the very realistic features of this potential future, he brings us hope through Wall-E and EVE, a second robot sent to look for anything that might still be alive on earth…

Here, Kinepolis suggests several films for schools centred around the ‘fight for the environment ’ – for a varied target audience. There are plenty of other ones out there, of course… How would you like to discuss them together?