Climate Change and the Environmental Documentary Film

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Film Science, grade: 1,0, University of Bayreuth, language: English, abstract: Climate change is arguably one of the most important issues of our time, but how do we perceive and how do we talk about it? Susanne C. Moser has identified the various difficulties that arise when trying to understand and communicate the phenomenon that is climate change. On the basis of her paper 'Communicating Climate Change - History, Challenges, Process and Future Directions' I have analysed two American environmental documentaries - Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' and Leonardo DiCaprio's 'The 11th Hour' - on how they each deal with aforementioned difficulties and have tried to determine which one can be regarded as 'better' or 'more successful' in terms of getting the message across. The films shall be analyzed according to their structure, their scientific accuracy (if possible), their approach to the subject and the way in which they deal with the afore mentioned problems in a successful communication of climate change. Afterwards it shall be tried to assess whether it can be said that one of the two documentaries is more successful at 'getting the message across' and if such should be the case, reasons for this will be discussed.