Of Walking on Thin Ice review – climate crisis protest pilgrimage wends way to Cop26
Shot on a 16mm Bolex camera by film-maker Benjamin Wigley, who also captured the sound separately and recorded most of it on the hoof, thisis an earnest but sincere hour-long film documenting a walk by climate activists from London to Glasgow in 2021. Organised by Extinction Rebellion Faith Bridge, the walk starts in Parliament Square and ends weeks later in Scotland, in time to coincide with the staging of Cop26, the UN climate change conference.
Organised by Christian clerical types – but inviting people of all faiths as well as those with no faith – there’s a strong spiritual vibe to the discourse Wigley captures on tape. That goes with the way the walkers sometimes describe themselves as “caministas”, like those who walk the ancient pilgrimage route Camino de Santiago across northern Spain. Even Wigley’s choice to film mostly on scruffy black-andwhite stock adds an old-timey feel, which goes with the much-discussed notions of the future and heritage – as if this were a series of pictures generations hence will study, wearing their gas masks or in their protective bunkers, when the planet’s fate is sealed.
Indeed, everyone is offered a chance to wear the “coat of hopes”, a handsewn-looking garment that’s appliqued along the way with bits of blanket from everywhere they pass through. But hope feels like thin gruel here, hardly enough to support this gaggle of idealists on their hard slog north. Their numbers increase significantly once they get to Scotland, but the paucity of participants makes the whole gesture feel symbolic and Situationist Lite (much like many other XR interventions), even for those sympathetic to their aims. At this point, 2021 seems like centuries ago, making this film feel even more like a lost artefact or a home-movie remembrance for the few who took part. But bless the lot of them for trying, and doing something the vast majority of us will never even attempt.
• Of Walking on Thin Ice screens on 6 November at the Cockpit theatre, London, then tours.