Conscientious Protectors: A Story of Rebellion Against Extinction review – XR and the art of protest
No Tory would admit it, but in terms of projecting Britain on to the global stage Extinction Rebellion, or XR, has been one of the country’s most successful exports during the Brexit years. It was founded by organic farmer Roger Hallam, environmental campaigner Gail Bradbrook and a core of others in 2018, and among their first major actions was the blockading of four central London sites in April 2019 – a 10-day coup engrossingly chronicled in this documentary by Leigh Bloomfield, which should rightfully double up as a canny handbook on how to conduct civil disobedience.
At one point, a police officer impressively misses the point and reads out an inventory of the economic cost of the Waterloo bridge blockade to an indifferent-looking XR activist. The organisation was founded on the recognition that this level of disruption is needed to make governments act on climate change, and Bloomfield minutely documents the difficulties of sustaining such obstructionism in the field. As one campaigner recognises, it often boils down to “confidence”. In the moment, a ratcheting-up of police presence and a dip in morale can prove a tipping point, as we see when some stressed bridge protesters start retreating to the main Marble Arch site. There’s a lot for activists to learn in the strategic feints and readjustments on show here.
That XR managed to hold out in their London occupations for as long as they did is testimony to the sturdy logistics and strategy marshalled by Hallam, who has the softspoken, bureaucratic airs of a Morrison’s branch manager. But in the case of the dissipation of the final Marble Arch encampment, Bloomfield’s film doesn’t fully clarify if XR voluntarily jumped or were shoved by increasing pressure from the police. Amid the mounting fatigue, chaos and debates, another co-founder Stuart Basden hints at the perennial bugbear of protest movements the longer they persist: “We need some clarity about why we’re still here.”
Behind that is the broader question of how XR move forward and win converts beyond hardcore activists. Bloomfield’s brisk, upbeat sweep means the film doesn’t offer more than brief glances at the opportunities and hurdles on that front. Hopeful interactions with commuters are balanced by a concerned parent telling the organisers they need to be more transparent with their younger activists about legal risks.
XR’s broader momentum levels are still the salient issue – especially after the enforced hiatus of the pandemic. But this film shows why they are still the environmental movement’s clarion voice.
• Conscientious Protectors: A Story of Rebellion Against Extinction is released in UK cinemas on 25 July, and screens at select cinemas in Australia on 29 August.