Arte is dedicating a four-hour long theme evening to the battle for the climate and shows, among other things, what we can all do to reduce our ecological footprint.
It is understandable that Arte first works on the big picture at a themed evening about the global climate; but the much more exciting of the two documentaries, which the culture channel shows under the common title “Heated Up – The Battle for the Climate”, is the second. However, before the journalist Anna Marohn describes from a very personal point of view what is individually possible to reduce the ecological footprint, Lena Müller and Alexander Ebert tell the story of the world climate conferences.
The cinematic hard work is, however, designed to be quite uninspired. This begins with the long-worn method of placing the various experts at the beginning as pointedly as possible, and extends to the always unimaginative and often clumsy-looking introduction of these people who first have to walk past the camera with an important expression . On the other hand, since many interviews apparently took place via video, the conversations are eye-to-eye with the audience, which still takes getting used to with unmoderated programs.
“Heated up – The battle for the climate” (Arte): Successful selection of experts: pictures are neglected
A major shortcoming of the documentation “In the engine room of politics” is the consistent neglect of the optical level. The images with which the statements are illustrated on the split screen come from archives without exception, are for the most part completely arbitrary and serve the sole purpose of not letting the film consist exclusively of talking heads; this is even more tiring when an expert reads out a document. After all, the men and women are very well selected. For example, the statements by Ottmar Edenhofer, director and chief economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, as well as the insights of an American ex-lobbyist who switched sides are very interesting.
The most intriguing conversation partner is the historian Susanne Götze, who specializes in the history of climate policy. She gives her explanations very vividly, manages without box sentences riddled with foreign words and likes to use drastic colloquial language (“crap-cheek”) to reinforce the unheard-of nature of a process. The balanced mix of experts also includes the ratio of men and women; otherwise men usually dominate in productions of this type.
“Heated up – The battle for the climate”
Tuesday, October 26th, 2021, Arte, 8.15 p.m., media library
The film is also worth seeing because of the successful reduction in complexity: Müller and Ebert actually managed to tell seventy years of climate policy in a good fifty minutes. Strictly speaking, however, it should be called anti-climate policy: The consequences of climate change, primarily caused by industry, were predicted back in the 1950s, and the oil companies’ method, which has been extremely successful for many decades, is just as old, with the help of extremely efficient lobbying work belittling; Another documentary this evening deals with the “power of lobbyists” at 10:00 pm.
After “Heated Up – The Battle for the Climate”, Arte focuses on the subject
After the frustrating visit to the “engine room”, Arte shows what the team can do. Even the tone of Marohn’s film is completely different, especially since the author is also her own leading actress. Her attitude has changed radically since she was a mother. Until then, she was one of the many Germans who consider themselves environmentally conscious and separate their rubbish, but fly carefree through the world. “My footprint, the climate and I” is worth seeing, especially because of the consistently subjective approach, because this is precisely what makes it easy to dock; For example, the journalist searches through her wardrobe together with an expert in fair fashion. In addition to their own small family, their parents are also involved.
In between, graphics illustrate why, for example, the consumption of organic meat is even more harmful in terms of climate change than buying cheap goods; With oat milk, on the other hand, it looks very different. It will not be a coincidence that the explanatory pieces are reminiscent of the “factual stories” from the “Sendung mit der Maus”, also because of Marohn’s humorous, affable language.
The four-hour theme evening is rounded off by “Children of the Climate Crisis” (11 pm). In her ninety-minute documentary, Irja von Bernstorff introduces four girls from India, Australia, Indonesia and Senegal, all of whom are directly affected by the consequences of climate change and who are actively committed to protecting the environment. (Tilmann P. Gangloff)
