Earth Day Film Screening at NUS: Leonardo Dicaprio’s Before the Flood
The NUS Energy Studies Institute (ESI) and the US Embassy jointly organized a screening of the 2016 documentary film about climate change, ‘Before the Flood’, on the 6th of April 2017. Held at the NUS University Hall Auditorium, the film screening was prefaced by a panel discussion on climate change.
‘Before the Flood’ is a powerful documentary, driven by an engaged and empathetic Leonardo DiCaprio. He takes on the role of investigative journalist as he travels across the globe to interview politicians, researchers, innovators – subjects interviewed include former President Barack Obama, Elon Musk and Pope Francis. It is in the linking of multiple places in the world that presents climate change as a multifaceted reality, connecting groups of people in the face of an unrelenting threat. DiCaprio masterfully journeys from the flooded crops in India, to the smog-hit industrialized cities of Beijing, to the melting ice sheets of Greenland, the political impasse of the White House, the magnitude of factory-farming in the US, and even to Hollywood, to explore the effects of climate change. The documentary shows with stunning clarity the different ways in which people are organizing against climate change. In China, DiCaprio is educated on the importance of data, and how grassroots movements have called for more transparency and reporting by companies. This has created momentum for citizen-built data collection and data sharing platforms, providing citizens with leverage to demand accountability from companies and specific policy changes from their government. In the US, DiCaprio sees instead a move towards carbon pricing across the economy, from the private industry through to government legislation.
‘Before the Flood’ is a very visual, educational documentary, focused not just on showing the effects of climate change, but also the ways in which things like data, reporting, innovation and policy can be used to develop short and long term solutions. For more information on the film, please visit: https://www.beforetheflood.com/
