Trump quote inspires title of Nat Geo’s ‘Paris to Pittsburgh’
The title of National Geographic Channel’s climate change documentary “Paris to Pittsburgh” (9 p.m. Wednesday) was inspired by President Donald Trump’s June 2017 announcement that he was pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, saying, “I was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
Narrated by Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), “Paris to Pittsburgh” is bookended by scenes filmed in Pittsburgh in April. The film begins with the Trump quote and then cuts to Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, who recounts getting a news alert on his cell phone that sent him to Twitter to rebut the president.
“When President Trump made that announcement, it was a very crystallizing moment for a lot of people,” said Sidney Beaumont, director of “Paris to Pittsburgh” with Michael Bonfiglio. Mr. Beaumont previously directed “From the Ashes,” a 2017 Nat Geo documentary about the coal industry. “As with ‘From the Ashes,’ what ‘Paris to Pittsburgh’ became was a story around contrasting visions for the future of the country and really for our ability to grapple with a changing climate as a result of human activity. … The movement that erupted to refute the position of the administration and President Trump was a very vibrant, passionate movement that we wanted to try to capture in its different dimensions.”
Mr. Beaumont said he first met Mr. Peduto in November 2017 at a climate change conference in Bonn, Germany.
“He demonstrated a great deal of passion on the issues and his unabashed willingness to really stand up and be heard both as a mayor and as representative of the City of Pittsburgh to say, ‘We are committed to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement’ got producers’ attention,” Mr. Beaumont said in a recent interview. “So the idea for the film emerged out of the coincidence of President Trump’s comment … and the irony did not escape any of us that in Pittsburgh, in
the voice and from the perspective of the mayor and the community across the board, there was a strong commitment and desire to be part of this movement. People wanted to stand up and say, no, in fact we are committed to the Paris Climate Agreement, and we want to do everything we can to uphold those commitments.”
Mr. Beaumont said Pittsburgh also provides an interesting juxtaposition given its past.
“The other resonance and particularly the important part for us in including Pittsburgh in this story is the fossil fuel legacy that Pittsburgh has,” he said. “We know that Pittsburgh was an industrial powerhouse in the 20th century that fell on harder times as the steel industry declined there.”
The filmmakers also saw how Pittsburgh has other strengths, including educational institutions, philanthropies and an ability to reinvent itself as a knowledgebased economy.
“We were inspired by the fact that a community so deeply connected with fossil fuels was really passionate about reinventing itself in a way that embraces what I think many people across the board see as the path forward to address the issue of climate change, which is making commitments to another form of an economy that is much more reliant on clean energy,” Mr. Beaumont said. “What it’s doing on the ground there is made especially powerful given the transformation Pittsburgh is working towards to decouple their progress from a fossil fuel legacy.”
Like “Paris to Pittsburgh,” “From the Ashes” was produced by Bloomberg Philanthropies, which encompasses all the charitable giving for founder Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire and former New York mayor who in October announced Pittsburgh would be among the localities in a $70 million program designed to accelerate cities’ efforts to combat climate change.
“Paris to Pittsburgh” complements the findings of a federal government report, released over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, that found that climate change, if left unchecked, will undermine the nation’s economy, water and food supplies and Americans’ overall health.
“Paris to Pittsburgh” shows the rise of wildfires in the West, now-routine street flooding in South Florida caused by sea level rise, the influx of refugees from environmental disasters, and flooding in Iowa that used to come every 100 years and now occurs every few years.
In spite of these dire forecasts, “Paris to Pittsburgh” manages to avoid becoming a total downer by concentrating on efforts already underway to combat climate change, from the use of wind energy by a 100-year-old rural electricity co-op in Iowa to fleet farming in Florida.
“What the film is trying to do is show these solutions need to be operating on multiple levels, from the grassroots level [to] a much higher institutional level that allows us to scale these solutions,” Mr. Beaumont said. “We want to inspire people to see there are solutions.”
Kept/canceled/rebooted
NBC renewed “The Good Place” for a fourth season.
HBO renewed “My Brilliant Friend” for a second season.
The CW is developing a potential spinoff of “Jane the Virgin” but offered no details on what the show would be about or who might be in it.
Lifetime ordered two seasons of the stalker drama “You” but dropped the second season after season one drew low ratings. Season two will now be produced for Netflix.
AMC renewed “Preacher” for a fourth season.
Netflix canceled “Daredevil” and renewed “Narcos: Mexico” for a second season.
Audience Network renewed “Loudermilk” for a third.
Adult Swim will televise a new anime series inspired by the movie “Blade Runner 2049.” The 13-episode “Blade Runner — Black Lotus” will be set in 2032 and feature some characters from past “Blade Runner” films.
Channel surfing
Pine-based producer T.J. Lubinsky’s PBS pledge special “My Music: Engelbert Humperdinck” was successful the first time it aired during the current WQED-TV pledge period so it will re-air at 6 p.m. Saturday and at noon, 3 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday . ... Amazon’s Prime Video will be available via Comcast’s Xfinity X1, rolling out over the next week.
Tuned In online
Today’s TV Q&A column responds to questions about “Victoria,” “Mercy Street” and “Outsiders.” This week’s Tuned In Journal includes posts on “Deal or No Deal.” Read online-only TV content at http://communityvoices.post-gazette.com/ arts-entertainment-living/ tuned-in.
TV writer Rob Owen: rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2582. Follow RobOwenTV on Twitter or Facebook for breaking TV news.