Promise Motivation: Films with Good News about Climate Change

Le present article se penche sur cinq films qui incitent le spectateur a participer activement a resoudre la crise climatique. Redigee selon le point de vue d'une chercheuse militante, l'analyse est centree sur le documentaire francais Demain (Cyril Dion and Melanie Laurent, 2015), qu'elle compare au documentaire allemand Climate Warriors (Carl A. Fechner, 2017) et plus brievement, au documentaire australien 2040 (Damon Gameau, 2020), au documentaire americain Bidder 70 (Beth Gage and George Gage, 2012) et au long metrage americain Comment saboter un pipeline (How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Daniel Goldhaber, 2023). La plupart des films sur les changements climatiques portent sur la << motivation du risque >>, qui depeint le pessimisme rattache aux bouleversements climatiques, mais les films abordes dans le present article, et particulierement Demain, priorisent la << motivation de la promesse >>, une forme de visualisation et de recit axee sur ce qui peut etre fait pour inciter le spectateur a s'investir. A l'analyse, la << motivation de la promesse >> peut prendre diverses formes, telles que la visualisation des effets de l'education, les activites economiques novatrices, les jardins communautaires, l'organisation de protestations et d'activites de ce type, jusqu'a la description d'actes de desobeissance civile reussis, dont l'efficacite ne repose pas essentiellement sur l'heroisme individuel, comme on le voit dans le cinema traditionnel, mais dans de puissants recits sur la recherche et la decouverte de la solidarite. This article takes a close look at five films that encourage their viewers to get actively involved in solving the climate crisis. Written from the perspective of a scholar-activist, the analysis is centered on the French documentary film Demain (Cyril Dion and Melanie Laurent, 2015) and then goes on to contrast it with the German documentary Climate Warriors (Carl A. Fechner, 2017) and also, more briefly, with the Australian documentary 2040 (Damon Gameau, 2020), the American documentary Bidder 70 (Beth Gage and George Gage, 2012), and the American feature film How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber, 2023). While most known climate change films focus on "risk motivation," portraying the gloom and doom of climate disruption, the films discussed in this article, Demain above all, prioritize "promise motivation," a form of visualizing and storytelling that focuses on what can be done to encourage viewers to become engaged. The analysis reveals that "promise motivation" can take many different forms, from visualizing the effects of education, innovative economic activities, community gardening, organizing protests, and the like, all the way to portraying successful civil disobedience, and that its effectiveness is grounded not primarily in individual heroism as in traditional cinema, but instead in powerful storytelling about seeking and finding solidarity.