An inconvenient sequel is a courageous effort
AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER (Documentary) Direction: Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk Featuring: Al Gore Rating:
It’s been more than a decade since the Oscar-winning feature length documentary An Inconvenient Truth alerted audiences to the catastrophic consequences of climate change.
In the intervening years, former US vice-president Al Gore has continued his crusade for a renewable energy revolution.
While the first film made extensive use of the slideshow format, the cleverly titled sequel follows the Nobel Peace Prize activist on his travels around the world in a bid to shake up international climate policy. (His globetrotting approach, incidentally, has earned him quite a few critics, and calls of ‘hypocrite’.)
Anyway, Gore argues powerfully and effectively that if political and corporate lobbyists are not ignored, and stringent corrective measures are not implemented, we will continue to wit- ness extreme temperatures and apocalyptic natural disasters such as the melting of the ice caps and resultant floods in cities as far-flung as Miami and Chennai.
Taking over from David Guggenheim, who helmed the original, co-directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk (who also serves as cinematographer) present Gore as a “recovering politician” dedicated to the cause of our environmental future.
They show him at the 2015 Paris climate conference, negotiating with the dissenting Indian delegation and eventually even persuading them to vote in favour of the treaty. (Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump pulled America out of the historical accord.) Whatever you may think of the former Veep, An Inconvenient Sequel, like its predecessor, is powerful and essential viewing.