Hamptons Museum Presenting Regional Debut Of Climate Change Film

On Friday, January 15th, the Parrish Art Museum is hosting the inaugural regional presentation of This Changes Everything. The 2015 film, which is directed by Avi Lewis, was inspired by journalist Naomi Klein’s bestseller of the same title, and re-imagines the harrowing climate change challenge that plagues the world that we live in.

“This Changes Everything is especially powerful and timely as climatologists anticipate the effects of rising sea levels, changes in weather patterns, and the impact on coastal zones—especially when one considers that half the world’s population live within 200 miles of a sea coast, ours notwithstanding,” explained Andrea Grover, the Century Arts Foundation Curator of Special Projects at the Parrish.

Filming took more than 211 days over the course of four years and covers nine countries and five continents. This Changes Everything takes a look at seven worldwide communities who are on the front lines of climate change and global warming, like Greece, where the economic crisis is being used as reasoning for mining and drilling projects that threaten the mountains, seas, and tourism economy, or Andhra Pradesh, India, where villagers are battling a proposed coal-fired power plant that would ruin a life-giving wetland, or the U.S., where Mike and Alexis, two goat ranchers find their dreams saturated in oil from a broken pipeline in Montana’s Powder River Basin.

With narration by Klein, the 90-minute film weaves together seven powerful portraits of troubled areas, all of which she believes, is connected to the carbon in the air and the economic system accountable for it. Within This Changes Everything, the journalist broaches an ideology that is quite controversial: the existential crisis of climate change can be the starting point for transforming a failed economic system into something better. Viewers will also hear individual experiences from five subjects that have personally been effected by the problem.

“Purposely unsettling… Ultimately encouraging,” said Variety about the film, which came in second place for audience voting in the documentary category at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

While the film’s creators realize it won’t actually change everything, they do believe a significant change can be made if its viewers “answer its call to action.”

This Changes Everything will screen on Friday, January 15th at 6 p.m. The film will be introduced by Edwina von Gal, founder of Perfect Earth Project, a nonprofit whose mission is to preserve the earth’s ecosystems by raising awareness about and reducing the use of toxins in landscapes. Admission is $10, but free for members.

The Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. For more information, call 631-283-2118 or visit parrishart.org.