Oscar Winning UK production company PASSION PICTURES and multi-award winning filmmaker SASHA SNOW team up to produce a 2 year independent production about Extinction Rebellion.
Available to watch for FREE until Thursday 27 August at 2100 UTC, afterwards available to watch for a small fee On Demand.
Available with French, Spanish, Italian or German subtitles and with English closed captions.
Contacts
Email:media@rebellion.global
Phone: +447802530272 /+447472916283
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#TheTroublemaker #WeWantToLive #ExtinctionRebellion #ActNow
“I don’t want my children to look back and think I led a frivolous life and then just abandoned them. I want them to know I did everything I possibly could.” - Sylvia Dell
“The essence of what is human is the ability to make a decision, a conscious decision on what is right in life, regardless of the consequences.” - Roger Hallam (XR Co-Founder)
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Released worldwide on Friday August 21st in 5 languages via VideoOnDemand, one week before the beginning of the next round of organised mass civil disobedience in the UK & worldwide
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‘The Troublemaker’ is a 57-minute documentary film that delves deep into the ideas and emotions behind the international wave of civil protest, born in the face of the unfolding climate crisis
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‘The Troublemaker’ follows the personal awakening of two people as they learn to accept the reality of climate breakdown and decide to do something about it
Oscar winning UK production company PASSION PICTURES and multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker SASHA SNOW have today released “The Troublemaker”, a 2-year independent production about EXTINCTION REBELLION.
As a society, and as individuals, we have always been defined by how we react in the face of a crisis. This is the archetypal story played out on a global scale, presenting the opportunity for self-discovery if we are prepared to face up to the existential threat.
Roger Hallam’s reputation as the eponymous ‘Troublemaker’ is a double-edged sword, praised by some and vilified by many inside and outside of Extinction Rebellion. Whatever your opinion of the man, it cannot be denied that his journey from organic farmer, to social science theorist and one-time co-founder of XR, to ‘political independent’, makes him a uniquely interesting place to start a story of ideas. This is especially true given the prevailing context of political weakness and cynicism.
The film uses not one but TWO prophetic voices as channels for raising this challenge. Roger is the voice of committed belief in the civil disobedience model of social change, a model that has achieved spectacular results in recent history. But through the journey of SYLVIA DELL, retired mother of 4 from South Devon, we get a glimpse of how this model can play out in the life of an apparently ‘ordinary’, law-abiding citizen.
‘The Troublemaker’ scratches the niggling itch that is lurking in many of our brains about the extinction of planetary systems that seems to be going on all around us, and the dawning realisation that something has to be done.
Ultimately the film poses a simple question: with the consensus of informed opinion declaring a ‘climate emergency’, is it morally acceptable to sit back and do nothing?
Director's Statement
“As a filmmaker I have spent the last 20 years exploring our fractured and self-destructive relationship with the natural world, looking for stories and people that might inspire us to change.
I have always been interested in visionary individuals that attempt to stir society from passive acceptance and who are prepared to suffer for their ideas in the process.
Between 2007-2015 I chased the ghost of GRANT HADWIN, an expert logger driven to an extreme protest and a perverse ‘crime against nature’.
Grant drowned in mysterious circumstances while kayaking to his own trial.
It was with the same unresolved curiosity that I approached Roger Hallam, co-founder of the then-nascent environmental protest movement ‘Extinction Rebellion’ (XR).
I am an ‘outsider’ to XR, and have been careful to retain my independence, working to craft a story about the ideas and emotions that are driving the fledgling ‘rebellion’ on our streets, and not to be deflected or distracted by the personalities and politics inevitably involved with such a project.
‘The Troublemaker’ is the result of this 20 month journey, supported all the way by the editorial wisdom of the team at Passion Pictures, one of the finest independent production companies in the U.K.”
About the Production Company
With three Oscars, three BAFTAs, and numerous Emmy awards, PASSION PICTURESis a global production company with a worldwide reputation for its feature documentaries, landmark television productions, animation and commercials.
Notable titles include: Academy Award-winning One Day in September | Academy Award-nominated Restrepo | Academy shortlisted The Tillman Story (Winner: Best Historical Doc Emmy 2012) | BAFTA-winning The Imposter | Academy Award and BAFTA-winning Searching For Sugar Man | Emmy and Golden Panda winning My Life as a Turkey | and the Netflix original and Academy Award-nominated Winter On Fire.
About Extinction Rebellion
Time has almost entirely run out to address the ecological crisis which is upon us, including the 6th mass species extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change. Societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices, if rapid action is not taken.
Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.
Extinction Rebellion’s key demands are:
- Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.
- Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero as soon as possible.
- Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.
Why Rebel? | Extinction Rebellion in Numbers | This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook
Get Involved
- Take your first steps to become a rebel.
- While your time and energy are of most importance, if you are financially able to donate money, see our Crowdfunder.
About Rising Up!
Extinction Rebellion emerged from the Rising Up! network, which promotes a fundamental change of our political and economic system to one which maximises well-being and minimises harm. Change needs to be nurtured in a culture of reverence, gratitude and inclusion while the tools of civil disobedience and direct action are used to express our collective power.