Wild Earth Oceania (WEO) will showcase Future Council, the latest film from Australian film director Damon Gameau, at the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA-79) on Thursday 26th September. As part of the United Nations Foundation Global Summit of the Future, Gameau, along with eight young environmental advocates featured in the film, will present their journey to global leaders.
The film has already screened at Melbourne International Film Festival earlier this month to rave reviews, and has Gameau taking eight change maker kids on the ultimate school excursion: a road trip across Europe a in biofuel-powered school bus. Along the way, they form the idea of a ‘Future Council’, one that meets with powerful leaders to find solutions to our greatest ecological challenges. It’s a coming-of-age journey that dares to imagine a brighter future.
The film features inspiring youth singer/songwriter Ruby Rodgers, granddaughter of legendary musician Jimmy Barnes, who will also be performing at a reception at the United Nations Foundation adding to the film’s impact at this global event.
Gameau, along with WEO Founder and Director Jacquie Pohl, has accompanied the children to the exclusive screening at the United Nations Headquarters.
“Bringing these kids into the room with world leaders is a powerful reminder that the future they’ll inherit depends on the decisions made today,” Pohl said. “Future Council illustrates just how essential it is to listen to those who will live with the consequences of inaction, and to work together with global partners for rapid, effective solutions.” She added, “Our WEO Ambassador Dr Jane Goodall often says, ‘With hope, anything is possible.’ These children are the embodiment of that hope, and their voices must be heard. WEO believe that bringing Damon and the Future Council to UNGA-79 is one of the fastest ways to change the global environment”.
The young people from Future Council have already played a starring role in the Summit of the Future, featuring in a short campaign video titled “Once Upon a Future”. The video has already been viewed over 200 million times globally and will also be seen in Times Square and on screens and billboards around the world.
When asked where the idea for the Future Council came from, Gameau said, “Kids today have so much to say about climate change and there’s absolutely no avenue for them, the Schools for Climate strikes have been their only avenue and while we look back now at movements like the
suffragettes and think ‘what an amazing time, of women taking to the streets’, these kids have been so put down they’ve become a bit gun-shy and haven’t been protesting, for obvious reasons. I think we’re going to look back on this too and think how extraordinary these students are, taking to the streets, but there’s got to be other ways we can let them express themselves, because many of them know far more than most adults when it comes to sustainability.”
He added that what had surprised him most about the kids was their tenacity. “Their emotional courage, their ability to be so open, how insightful they were. A lot of people underestimate children, but they pick up far more than we realise. And the humour, light and playfulness that they bring, I didn’t expect that. It’s a very serious topic but they still manage to have buoyancy. And just how important human connection is. Sometimes we can look at sustainability as this separate issue that sits outside of us – it’s about emissions and ocean plastics – but so much of that is how we come together, as a community. Our true essence as humans is that we do want to connect with each other, we do want to form deep relationships and have a better world, we’re just being distracted on a massive scale. But fundamentally the vast majority of us are good, altruistic people. And that gives me hope.”
The film was brought to life in partnership with Regenerators and PVBLIC, as well as Phantm and Intrepid Travel, and the Australian federal government through the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.
Leigh Barnes, Intrepid’s Chief Customer Officer, told Irresistible, “Intrepid is proud to support young people’s voices on the climate emergency on a global stage. We know how climate change is impacting communities in destinations all around the world and we believe that nothing is more powerful than hearing from the next generation about the urgency of taking climate action. It is inspiring to see these young people leading the way and seeking solutions for the greatest challenge facing our world.”
Gameau responded when asked where do we go from here, “Films are never enough, they’re an emotional vehicle to unlock but the important thing is you now channel those emotions into something tangible. We did that with 2040, and I think that’s going to be the exciting thing with Future Council. It will be seen by students across the world and if we can build a global Future Council really thoroughly then aligned kids can join, they can come and meet likeminded groups of children around the world who are going to regularly meet these powerful leaders and continue exactly what they did in the film. I imagine we’ll have all these corporates around the world lining up to meet the kids but also get their insights. Then it’s about how we create a fair exchange. So you build up this repository of actions kids can take if they’re feeling eco anxiety, they can come to this website and know they’re not alone and join in, it provides an alternative way to express themselves to what they’ve got right now. And this is where the kids add terrific value: they are thinking outside the box, they’ve got really radical, fresh ideas and some of them are going to land.”
