‘Sequel’ looks at solar power in Texas
Filmmakers hope there won’t be need for second follow-up
Somewhat surprisingly, Texas figures prominently in “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.”
In following up Davis Guggenheim’s 2006 film “An Inconvenient Truth” — which covered Al Gore’s crusade to educate the public about climate change — documentary filmmakers Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk ran their cameras in a state that is no one’s idea of a hub of support for the former vice president, nor his thoughts on climate change.
Nevertheless they made a deliberate decision to shoot one of Gore’s climate change presentations in Houston, a prominent energy town. And they also headed just north of Austin to Georgetown, a bright red region where Mayor Dale Ross politely made clear his political differences with Gore, all the while outlining his town’s shift to solar power.
“An Inconvenient Truth” pulled $24 million at the box office a decade ago, a sizable haul for a documentary, and won two Academy Awards. “Sequel” may simply be preaching to the choir about climate change, but both Cohen and Shenk hope using Georgetown as a case study might depoliticize the hot topic and bring some viewers around to alternative energy. They discussed the film, which opens Friday. Q: The film’s tone is frank about potential struggles ahead. But there’s a real optimism in it, too. Georgetown really plays a significant role in that.
Cohen: You can’t just make a film that addresses the problems. And Al Gore doesn’t just talk about problems. Like he does, we had to show some solutions and some solutions that were already in place. So yes, we tried to reflect some
Al Gore optimism, and we found that in communities like Georgetown. There you have 65,000 people. And we learned you don’t have to agree on everything politically and you don’t even need to agree on the terminology — call it global warming or something else. But there we found we could agree that alternative energy can also make good economic sense. That it can be a job creator.
Shenk: The movie, in a way, is an accident of history because this never should have become a political issue. Never. If you ask most Americans they have this “Let’s go camping” ethos, the “leave no trace” going back to Teddy Roosevelt and beyond. These are part of conservative values. And Georgetown is a great example. Maybe they did things for economic reasons, but isn’t it great to not be polluting as well? Nobody wants to pass the buck to the next generation. But it’s becoming a more emotional issue.
Q: Did you know going in Georgetown was going to be so central to the narrative?
Cohen: We were attracted to the Georgetown story and decided to go there for all the reasons you can imagine. The opportunity for Al Gore in his post-political existence to go meet somebody completely on the other side of the political spectrum from him in the heart of Trump country, to come together and discuss the benefits of alternative energy was too good to pass up. And it was both economical and environmental. It wasn’t about wagging a finger at Houston or Dallas or those cities that weren’t on board the train. But Georgetown was an excellent example of how quickly and efficiently a community could fall in line with a plan the way that town did. What we didn’t know going in was how wonderful the rapport was between the vice president and the mayor. That helped us realize the importance in the narrative of people talking to one another.
Q: When did you know you might do a sequel? Was the plan always to come back 10 years later? It’s striking how much change you get in that time. Even just Vice President Gore, he looks very different, which underscores the passing of time.
Shenk: Bonni and I have found one of the amazing and wonderful things about documentary filmmaking is being able to use that element of time. If you take a picture of a baby and then take a picture of that same child at age 10 that’s an amazing experience to see. And we also just thought it was the right amount of time to go by before we could go to an audience and ask permission to give an update of that story. It was enough time to look at some scientific predictions and look at the technology and innovation landscape. Ten years ago solar was just too expensive to be a solution. But it’s come down so quickly and so much that some countries are going solar. And some cities like Georgetown, Texas, have gone entirely solar. It’s nice to be able to study these trends over time.
Cohen: And we didn’t want to constantly be cutting back to the other film. There’s one moment in the film that hearkened back and that was a prediction about flooding in the streets of Manhattan, and we cut to Hurricane Sandy.
Q: It seems like recent decisions regarding the Paris accord could’ve made you want to scrap the entire film and start over.
Cohen: We thought it still had an immediacy and urgency the way it was, so we thought it was best not to change things too much.
Shenk: One thing, it wasn’t surprising that Trump would align himself with a rogue’s gallery of fossil fuel, but that’s not new. That way of thinking has only gotten more entrenched after the recession. Eight or nine years ago the fossil fuel industry doubled down on its denialist message. Where it gets frustrating is it’s created a more tribal approach to politics.
Q: Do you see yourselves revisiting the subject again in another 10 years?
Cohen: We hope there won’t be the need for another film in 10 years. We’re hoping in 10 years to be celebrating some anniversary of carbon neutrality in our country, and electric cars filling the streets. We wanted to keep it positive. Al Gore really thinks we’re on the cusp of change, and that mayors and governors are pledging to meet the Paris agreement irrespective of Trump’s decision to pull out. So there are positive steps, and he feels like they shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Shenk: If you go back to 1860 nobody would have believed that you could’ve gotten rid of slavery in 10 years. Things can seem impossible but Al Gore’s point is that this isn’t impossible. That you can create a great social movement even when behaviors are entrenched. Bonni and I learned that it’s about incremental steps moving forward until you reach a different point of view. It’s about time and communication.