
By Bailey Pennick
It's well known that here at the Sundance Institute we're committed to championing independent storytelling in all forms. By supporting the next generation of artists, we're thrilled to see their work changing the world that we live in.
During this year's Festival, we're hoping to inspire future filmmakers and audiences alike with thoughtful conversations and panels about how to use art to create the change we want to see in the world. Calling All Artists: The Climate Crisis Is Recruiting - an online event presented by Women at Sundance and Produced by Doc Society, Climate Story Unit - captured the hearts and minds of its attendees with immediate and tactical ways that artists can help Climate Change activists and organizations gain traction through storytelling.
Moderated by Doc Society's Megha Agrawal Sood (Head of Climate Story Unit) and Emily Wanja (Global Community Manager, Climate Story), the discussion included thought leaders from across the globe: Andrea Ixch u (Maya K'iche' leader and filmmaker, Guatemala), Geeta Persad (climate scientist, USA), Vanessa Nakate (climate justice activist, Uganda), and Farhana Yamin (climate legal advisor, United Kingdom).
The hour-plus conversation ran the gamut on how to best address climate change within all forms of art and storytelling. Below, find five takeaways from the powerful discussion.
1. Now is the time to start telling climate crisis stories. I think the reality is that no matter what your art is about, climate change is already in it because we are all already living in a climate change world. But I think we also have to recognize that art is really critical for helping us build the backbone to take on the tremendous and immediate work of addressing climate change. Art is how we understand and process our lived experience which is part of why it's so important that everybody's lived experience be included in that. If we can reveal the presence of climate change in our art, it'll really give us a way to look climate change in the eye, and to really grapple with what it means for the people and the the things that we love instead of, you know, having this sort of vague sense of foreboding but not really being able to to process it fully. We need that more than ever, and art and storytelling is really where that can come from. - Geeta Persad
The best time that artists would have gotten involved in the climate conversation would have been decades ago, and I think the next best time is right now We cannot have art on a dead planet, we cannot have creativity on a dead planet or storytelling on a dead planet, so I think that there is so much power in using the creativity of artists around the world in centering voices of activists from the most affected areas; in centering solutions you know that are needed or solutions that are already being implemented in different parts of the world. So I think that it would be wonderful if artists around the world understood that this is a global challenge that affects all of us. If we have a dead planet then we won't have any more and yet, we all need a piece of art in our life, so, while we still have a living planet, let us use art, let us use creativity, let us use everything that we have to ensure that we can have a more beautiful future for all of us. - Vanessa Nakate
2. We need to break out of bad climate crisis narratives. I would say [we need to] shift from talking about the future. Climate is always framed as a future problem, but it's not, so shift to talking about the past. [Also] locate yourself in the present and how you got here. Through that simple shift, you will begin to connect with our own histories, which are complex and which have resulted in nature being decimated for hundreds of years - as a result of very deep systems, which cannot be tackled through the market now alone [Additionally], In all our climate stories and dialogues, [we need to] focus on justice and not on emissions. We tend to look at climate as a very emission-centric, you know, supply-centric problem, but, actually, if you look at its impacts, and you look at justice and you look at who is emitting and who's impacted, you will get a nuance and much more balanced and much more inclusive picture. - Farhana Yamin
[The climate crisis narrative] that I've heard recently that's really started grating on me is this idea that we only have 10 years to save the world. Let me tell you why I find that a little bit grating: I think one issue is that it gives the impression that if we don't do it in 10 years then it's not worth it. And, you know, I think it's really important that we recognize that it is always going to be worth it to do whatever we can to make things better. Having that kind of cliff makes it easy for pessimists - or for people who prefer the status quo - to sort of throw up their hands and say, well that's impossible so let's not even try.
Then I think there's also the flip side of it, where, when you put 10 years on it, that means we have 10 years to get serious, so we can wait out the clock for the next 10 years. But I think one of the most important things is that it perpetuates this idea that solving climate change is going to be a one-and-done thing. It's really important to recognize that we're going to keep making decisions that affect the climate that we live in, and so what we really need is to create a more inclusive, just, and thoughtful system of institutions and legal and economic frameworks. We need to resource the communities that are already doing the work and bring them more into the center, so that we can transform our entire way of behaving as a world, so that we can sustainably approach our impact on the climate system.
So, I think it's really importan
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
07/08/2025
July 8 2025, 22:30 (PDT) Tata Motors & Dolby Bring Dolby Atmos to Harrier.ev, R...
14/07/2025
The Royal Moroccan Air Force hosted a C-130 award ceremony with L3Harris Technologies President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Jason Lambert a...
14/07/2025
UK launch set for September, following on from recent US and Germany releases
London - UK, July 14, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, da...
14/07/2025
SHENZHEN, China Telycam has added control options for its portfolio of pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras with a new plug-in for Elgato's Stream Deck family of con...
14/07/2025
The awards are open to IBC2025 show exhibitors and offer a valuable platform for companies to raise awareness for the new products and solutions they will be la...
14/07/2025
Clear-Com is excited to announce a significant expansion of the award-winning Arcadia Central Station with new software updates. Together, these releases dram...
14/07/2025
Grass Valley and Daktronics today announced a strategic technology partnership that unites Grass Valley's live production expertise with Daktronics' lea...
14/07/2025
Cloud playout solutions provider, Veset, and swXtch.io, provider of cloud-based multicast and reliable networking solutions, are partnering to deliver multicast...
14/07/2025
Tintri , a DDN subsidiary and leader in AI-powered data management solutions, today announces a game-changing and award-winning refresh to its global Partner P...
14/07/2025
HighField AI, the broadcast industry's first agentic and multimodal AI platform for automating graphics production, is now commercially available. Developed...
14/07/2025
Encompass Digital Media has today announced that it has been delivering a complex global services project for DAZN, the world s leading sports entertainment pla...
14/07/2025
MASV (massive.io), the fastest, most reliable large file transfer platform trusted by over 10,000 global organizations, announced today it will showcase its nex...
14/07/2025
Calrec is introducing a series of usability, customisation and system enhancements across the entire range of Argo consoles at IBC 2025, on Stand 8.C47. Look ou...
14/07/2025
Fincons Group, IT business consultancy and systems integrator company with more than 40 years of experience in the market, is proud to announce a new engagement...
14/07/2025
Stand 5.F45, IBC2025, Amsterdam, 12 15 September 2025 Intinor returns to IBC to present the latest updates to its Direkt series. A key development on show is ...
14/07/2025
Sony's New Coach's Headset Was Designed in Collaboration With the NFL Featuring a custom dynamic boom mic, the headset will debut in the fall By Dan Da...
14/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: MLB Network's Marc Caiafa and Tom Guidice on th...
14/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix ISP Speed Index for June 2025
Product
14 July 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
One percent of Internet Service Providers (ISP...
14/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Begins Filming The Map of Longing With Al cia Falc , P...
14/07/2025
This July marks 100 days since I officially stepped into the role of CEO at Grass Valley, a milestone not of abrupt change, but of confident continuity.
Unlike...
14/07/2025
Enhancing Public Service Broadcasting with
Innovation, Accuracy & Sustainability
New regional detail and local towns featured...
13/07/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Expands B&B Universe' with Yu Jae Seok's B&B ...
13/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: MLB Network Marks Five Straight Years of Onsite MLB...
12/07/2025
Ryan Coogler accepting the 2013 Vanguard Award. Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez.
Editor's Note: In honor of Fruitvale Station s 12th anniversary, we're d...
12/07/2025
Key Code Education, the professional training division of Key Code Media, proudly announces a major update to its Adobe Premiere Pro Engineering and Advanced Op...
12/07/2025
Key Code Education, a leader in instructor-led post production training for over...
12/07/2025
As the death toll continues to mount, with at least 120 killed and more than 170 people still missing on July 10 from devastating Texas floods, a number of broa...
12/07/2025
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., and MIAMI -DirecTV and TelevisaUnivision have signed a deal that will make the ad-supported premium subscription tier of ViX, ViX Premium wi...
11/07/2025
PARK CITY, UTAH, July 11, 2025 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the 11 producers chosen for its annual Producers Labs, returning to Ucross Fou...
11/07/2025
If you've ever wondered what might be playing in Clark Kent's headphones...
11/07/2025
L3Harris Technologies President of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Jason Lambert and General Manager of L3Harris Waco facility Sean Ling held a ce...
11/07/2025
ARLINGTON, Va. WETA, the flagship public media station in the national capital area, has launched WETA+, a new streaming service tailored for the local Washingt...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission has emerged as one of the central players in the broadcast TV landscape in 2025, with its deregulatory policies sparking h...
11/07/2025
Calrec will introduce usability, customization and system enhancements across its entire range of Argo consoles during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Amsterda...
11/07/2025
LONDON Encompass Digital Media said it will support live and on-demand viewing of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup across multiple global regions for sports enterta...
11/07/2025
Two-thirds of broadcast engineers reaped the benefits of a pay raise within the last year....
11/07/2025
CARY, N.C. SmallHD has launched the Quantum 27, a new 26.5-inch Quantum-Dot OLED monitor designed to deliver postproduction image quality in a compact, set-frie...
11/07/2025
The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau and Tegna have entered into a consent decree that will settle an investigation into the accidenta...
11/07/2025
WASHINGTON Following news in early July that Paramount had settled President Donald Trump's lawsuit, Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Ben Ray Luj n (D-N...
11/07/2025
Model/Actriz Performs Lead Single Cinderella on The Late Show with Stephen Colbe...
11/07/2025
Behind the Mic: Amazon Prime Preps for First Season of NBA Action; MSG Networks ...
11/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Suite Studios' Craig Hering on Adapting to Client...
11/07/2025
2025 SVG Content Management Forum Breaks Down AI's Impact, Continued Transit...
11/07/2025
A Journey HOME: University of Nebraska's HuskerVision Goes IP Leaders from the HuskerVision and Lawo share their IP learnings By SVG Staff
Friday, July 1...
11/07/2025
CMSI, Remote Picture Labs, Ace ESPN's Cloud-Based Editing Efforts for Wimble...
11/07/2025
Netflix Enters the Live-Boxing-Production Ring for Round 2 With Historic Taylor-...
11/07/2025
Back to All News
Too Hot to Handle: Italy Is Coming on July 18 Only on Netflix
Entertainment
11 July 2025
GlobalItaly
Link copied to clipboard
July 11, 20...