Environmental Documentaries Research Articles

Çevre Söylemi Açısından Uygunsuz Gerçek ve Darwin’in Kâbusu Filmleri: Karşılaştırmalı Bir Analiz

Çevre belgesel filmleri, yaklaşık yarım asırdır çevre düşüncesinin ifade biçimlerinden biridir. Bu filmler, çevre sorunlarına dikkat çekmede ortak bir amaca hizmet etseler de, farklı çevre söylemlerinin birer ifadesi olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadırlar. Bu çalışma, işte bu söylemleri ve aralarındaki farklılıkları anlamayı amaçlamaktadır. Literatürde benzer çalışmalar olsa da, bu çalışmalar, daha çok filmlerdeki söylemlerin ayrı ayrı analizlerini içermektedir. Bu nedenle, çevre söylemlerinin iki film örneği üzerinden karşılaştırmalı olarak ele alınarak, aralarındaki söylem farklılığının ortaya konulması, çalışmayı özgün ve önemli kılmaktadır. Çalışmada Uygunsuz Gerçek ve Darwin’in Kâbusu belgesel filmlerinin örnek olarak seçilme nedeni, her ikisinin beğenilen, ancak farklı özellikleri olan önemli filmler olmasıdır. Filmlerdeki söylemler, kuramsal açıdan Dryzek’in reformist ve radikal çevre söylemleri sınıflandırması temelinde analiz edilmiştir. Çalışmada, Van Dijk’ın eleştirel söylem analizi yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Bu çerçevede filmler; argümanlaştırma, retorik figürler, sözel tarz, öykü anlatma, olumsuz davranışlara yapısal vurgu ve güvenilir kaynaklardan, tanıklardan ya da uzmanlardan alıntı yapmak olmak üzere altı kategoride analiz edilmiştir.

Transitional (in)justice in phasing out coal in China: Documentary as visual evidence to unveil the local experiences of coal transitions

This article examines how documentary film can be employed as visual evidence to create a thick description of environmental injustice among low-social-economic status communities in China. In particular, this article exemplifies the approach with a case study of a 2022 research project on transitional injustice during China’s phase out coal strategy in the case study of Liupanshui, the largest coal mine in southern China since the 1950s. Drawing upon the author’s environmental documentaries that explored the local struggles and sufferings of environmental injustice in China, the article explores how we can examine environmental injustice via a multidisciplinary approach that combines public policy, environmental studies and documentary filmmaking.

“Fact-based dreaming” as climate communication

ABSTRACT Documentaries have become an important avenue for climate change communication due to their ability to galvanize social change. Environmental documentaries have traditionally sought to motivate audiences through fear appeals, shock tactics, and a mode of address that is enraged, gloomy, chiding or disappointed. More recently, communication strategies for environmental documentary-makers have diversified, with positivity, playfulness, and solution-focused storytelling emerging as new possibilities for filmmakers seeking to inspire environmental change. The Australian documentary 2040 represents one such effort to “tell a new story” about climate change. In this article we explore 2040’s unique communication strategy of “fact-based dreaming”: a process which involves mobilizing the creative power of imagination to subvert established thought patterns while anchoring such imagination in present-time reality. We assess this strategy and argue that fact-based dreaming, itself a “childlike” strategy, is most productive when it incorporates the voices, imaginings and perspectives of children and young people.

Laymen’s Narratives in Amouddou’s Eco-documentary: An Ecolinguistic Analysis

Documentary films, generally of short or medium-length, have informative and educational purposes. They present authentic reports on areas of life, human activities, and the natural world. Particularly, eco-documentaries aim to raise environmental awareness towards the degradation of natural elements; they present alternatives for environmental issues such as pollution, global warming, and deforestation. To reinforce the argumentative process of environmental documentaries, laymen discourse contributes a lot to the meaning-making of productions. Within the framework of discourse analysis and ecolinguistics, this work examines fear and threat expressions used by ordinary witnesses to reinforce argumentation in Lahoucine Faouzi’s eco-documentary entitled “Whining of the Blue Lagoon. In this vein, the ‘perceived severity and perceived susceptibility’ model was used to investigate the implication of fear and threat appeals in laymen’s testimonies. The results show that these expressions are common among laymen’s narratives. This study has many implications for eco-documentary makers, governmental and non-governmental organs, and future research to explore other linguistic features in eco-documentaries on man’s perpetrated damages to the environmental resources.

Environmental documentaries in a digital age should be ethical, not just captivating

The rise of digital streaming platforms has increased the reach of documentary films, bringing questions of ethics to the forefront. We question whether documentaries should be held to ethical standards and argue that captivating science communication is necessary, but not sufficient. Ethics should also be part of the equation.

Did the Blue Planet set the Agenda for Plastic Pollution? An Explorative Study on the Influence of a Documentary on the Public, Media and Political Agendas

ABSTRACT Over the last two decades documentaries have been receiving more recognition as a way of influencing public perception and generating discourse about societal problems. Previous studies within the field of communication research have given some attention to the agenda-setting effects of environmental documentaries but have overlooked the issue of plastic pollution. This study addresses this gap in the literature by exploring whether The BBC environmental documentary series, The Blue Planet, set the agenda for plastic pollution in the UK. The research was designed using a combination of both a prominence analysis, measuring the frequencies of plastic pollution-related key terms, and a quantitative content analysis, giving an in-depth study into plastic pollution interest, of internet search data, newspaper articles and political debates. The results show that since the documentary was broadcast, plastic pollution-related terms were mentioned by the media and politicians and searched for online significantly more often than previously. The results also seem to imply that The Blue Planet generated this interest in plastic pollution which was, for both the media and political agendas, long-lasting. These results have implications for understanding the importance of documentaries as a viable source of putting environmental issues on the public, media and political agendas.

Considering the Role of Documentary Media in Environmental Education

Environmental issues continue to be a growing global concern. Many curricular documents have added environment-related topics into a variety of grade levels and subjects with the hope of increasing student awareness at a time when environmental stewardship is a top priority. Traditional approaches to environmental education often include engaging students with the outdoors, and while this is an integral part of developing students’ environmental awareness, much of what students learn about the environment is from the media, which includes visual imagery. As we contemplate how best to engage students in reflecting on what it means to live in a sustainable fashion, it is also important to consider the merits of visual rhetorical modes in environmental communication, such as documentary film. This paper draws upon findings from a study that explored how viewers react to particular visual imagery. The data revealed the most powerful rhetorical effect was observed when participants drew links between the visual content of the video clips and a personally significant outdoor place, demonstrating that a personal connection to place may make a direct impact on viewers’ reactions to visual rhetoric in environmental documentaries, thus possibly causing the viewer to develop a deeper awareness of the issues.

Representaciones y categor�as de la violencia en el cine: un recorrido hist�rico y contextual

El art�culo se aproxima a la violencia como elemento central en el cine del siglo XX y XXI, determinado hist�ricamente por las condiciones sociales. Se trabaja sobre las formas de representaci�n social, siguiendo la relaci�n de los sujetos consigo mismos y la naturaleza. Est� relaci�n se observa cr�ticamente, como construcci�n social y pr�ctica discursiva, dado la importancia del cine y sus implicaciones con la violencia; se reconoce que el ingrediente de la violencia en el arte cinematogr�fico se ha manifestado de m�ltiples formas y a lo largo de la historia.De igual forma se sistematizan algunas de las diferentes aristas presentes en las diversas tramas que a lo largo de m�s de cien a�os del arte cinematogr�fico trabajando sobre producciones de distintas partes del mundo. Se detiene a problematizar con ejemplos cinematogr�ficos de variadas cinematograf�as, c�mo el ingrediente de violencia de muy diversos grados, formas, matices y niveles es omnipresente en el hecho cinematogr�fico. El cine sin violencia es m�s excepci�n que regla. Lo que no resulta un asunto menor, dadas las repercusiones sociales y �ticas de los diversos films en la realidad social. Por lo anterior el cap�tulo se restringe y limita a analizar cuatro categor�as espec�ficas: a) La Acci�n/violencia visto como g�nero cinematogr�fico, particularmente la evoluci�n reciente del cine b�lico, en las �ltimas dos d�cadas y sus reminiscencias y diversos tratamientos y manifestaciones en las cinematograf�as principalmente la alemana y norteamericana. Nos interesa aqu� ver el tratamiento de la violencia en el cine posterior a la ca�da al muro de Berl�n; b) La violencia intrafamiliar en el cine, sobre todo a partir de los a�os noventa del siglo pasado y con la irrupci�n internacional de los derechos humanos (infantiles, derechos de la mujer, ambiente sano, etc.) el an�lisis se centra en pel�culas espa�olas, inglesas y norteamericanas, tambi�n de las �ltimas veinte a�os; c) Instituciones sociales y violencia, ejemplos en el cine y la violencia en c�rceles, hospitales y escuelas y ; d) la violencia sobre los recursos naturales: la violencia como raz�n de acumulaci�n y no de sustentabilidad en los documentales ambientales. Se avanza en algunas reflexiones finales que integran los seis asuntos tratados.

The view from a body of water: representing flooding and sea level rise in the South Pacific

ABSTRACT This article critiques the representation of sea level rise in environmental documentaries, positioning Briar March’s There Once Was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho (2010) as an essential rejoinder to more prominent representations of oceanic climate change, exemplified in An Inconvenient Truth (2006). An array of recent documentary productions, seeking to draw attention to rising seas and other anthropogenic disasters, turn to the Pacific Ocean utilising a wide range of mediatic regimes and visual apparatuses – from cinematic long takes to satellite imagery and digital animation. Among these films There Once was an Island offers a crucial perspective in its representation of the Takuu atoll, where residents faced with rising seas consider migrating en masse, prioritising subjectivity and physical reality as it foregrounds the cultural, material, and personal specificities of the atoll and its inhabitants. It offers a powerful counterpoint to dominant techniques for visualising climate disaster, which are characterised by spectacular imagery and logics of global mastery. By counterposing the perspectives offered in divergent documentary tendencies and examining their resonance with other cinematic strategies for representing catastrophe, from Hollywood CGI to post-war Italian neorealism, this article works through some ethical considerations for this growing subgenre of eco-cinema.

The Culture Wars of Climate Change

Of late, there has been a growth in cultural expression about climate change – with the rise of climate fiction (‘cli-fi’); art and photography responding to changes in nature; musical anthems about climate change; plays and dramas about climate change; and environmental documentaries, and climate cinema. Drawing comparisons to past controversies over cultural funding, this paper considers the cultural wars over climate change. This article considers a number of cultural fields. Margaret Atwood made an important creative and critical contribution to the debate over climate change. The work examines Ian McEwan's novel, Solar, a tragi-comedy about authorship, invention, intellectual property, and climate science. After writing a history of Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway have experimented with fiction – as well as history. This article focuses upon artistic works about climate change. It analyses James Balog’s work with the Extreme Ice Survey, which involved photography of glaciers under retreat in a warming world. The work was turned into a documentary called Chasing Ice. It also considers the artistic project of 350.org 'to transform the human rights and environmental issues connected to climate change into powerful art that gets people to stop, think and act.' The paper examines musical storytelling in respect of climate change. The paper explores dramatic works about climate change including Steve Waters' The Contingency Plan, Stephen Emmott's Ten Billion, and Andrew Bovell's When the Rain Stops Falling and Hannie Rayson’s Extinction. The paper also examines the role of documentary film-making. It also considers the cinematographic film, Beasts of the Southern Wild. Such a survey will enable a consideration of the larger question of whether creative art about climate change matters; and whether it is deserving of public funding.

Production of the environmental documentary ''PLASTICLYSM''

Documentary film is one of the strongest audiovisual means of communication. Its strength comes from the combination of image, audio and information it includes. The use of documentary film to raise public awareness towards many different topics is common throughout history. Nowadays, several environmental documentaries are produced every year. One of the most serious environmental problems that modern societies are facing is that of plastic pollution. In global scale, plastic production is estimated at 300 million tons annually. This paper discusses environmental documentary as a genre and describes the production process of the environmental documentary “PLASTICLYSM”.

Ecological Citizens with a Movie Camera: Communitarian and Agonistic Environmental Documentaries

Environmental documentaries attained wider public and academic attention, especially in the aftermath of Al Gore’s prominent documentary on climate change An Inconvenient Truth. Making environmental documentaries is a cinematic form of political advocacy. However, there is a lack of research on the broad range of such films from Germany. While earlier works tended to an accusatory style, newer environmental documentary seems to be more constructive and aiming at spreading information about feasible alternatives. This article pursues three objectives: first, to gain a deeper understanding of the shift from accusatory to constructive documentaries; second, to connect film studies to the political change-making role and therefore to theories of ecological citizenship; and third, to explore the question of what citizenship with a movie camera means. The accusatory and constructive style are associated with agonistic and communitarian ecological citizenship. A sample of two films from the German context, namely Leben ausser Kontrolle produced by Bertram Verhaag in 2004 and Voices of Transition produced by Nils Aguilar in 2012, is analyzed comparatively. The interpretive research method combines methods of studying audio-visual rhetoric with the framing approach from social movement studies.

Understanding China’s environmental challenges: lessons from documentaries

Films can be powerful tools in teaching environmental studies. In this paper, we examined 36 environmental documentaries on China for their content, theme, production, and reception with a view towards using them as teaching tools. In our analysis, the films roughly fall into five categories: (1) globalization and global environmental justice, (2) urbanization and displacement, (3) human-nature relationships, (4) the fossil fuel economy, and finally, (5) civil society and the environmental movement. We also discuss the politics of documentary-making in China. Many of the independent filmmakers identify as activists and present alternative perspectives to mainstream narratives. They strive to document the realities among the marginalized populations. Close to half of the documentaries we analyzed are censored in China due to either foreign production, collective action potential, or excessive popularity. Despite political constraints, high-profile environmental documentaries have enabled a number of significant policy changes in China in recent years. In sum, this paper can serve as a “viewing guide” for students and instructors to learn about China’s environmental challenges through films.

한 · 일 환경담론에서 로컬리티의 재현과 의미 : 1990년대 이후 환경 다큐멘터리를 중심으로

이 글은 한일 환경담론에서 환경인식과 실천의 출발점으로서 ‘로컬리티’가 구성되는 방식을 문화사회학적 관점에서 고찰했다. 특히, 환경문제가 집중된 환동해지역을 배경으로 발생하는 환경 운동과 환경 문제를 기록한 한일 환경 다큐를 분석 대상으로 삼았는데, 이는 생태적 문제의식과 로컬리티의 문화적 구성의 상관관계를 구체적으로 고찰하기 위함이다. 1990년대 이후 발표된 다큐멘터리의 비교 연구를 통해 한국과 일본이 구성하는 환경담론의 공통점과 차이점도 드러내고자 했다. 이는 로컬리티를 토대로 한 저항 연대의 가능성을 모색하는 데 목적이 있었다. 구체적인 분석내용은, 한국은 사회적으로 환경운동 성공 사례로 회자되는 동강 영월댐 건설 반대운동을, 일본은 일본 사회에서 가장 대표적인 환경문제였던 공해병에 주목했다. 이 시기 환경다큐는 특정 로컬 장소정체성을 기반으로 한 환경운동주체 구성이 중심을 이룬다. 2000년대 다큐를 통해서는, 일본에서 후쿠시마 이후를 기점으로 로컬 단위를 넘어 글로벌 시민사회와의 연대 가능성이 강화되는 과정을 분석했다. 이 시기 한국과 일본에서의 탈원전 이슈 부각 및 글로벌 시민사회와의 연계 가능성을 강조됐다. 밀양 송전탑 다큐에서와 같이, 환경적 문제 장소들에서 저항적 연대가 형성되는 것에 주목했다. 한일 환경담론을 통해 환경운동이 로컬에서 시작하지만, 장소, 국가, 글로벌 스케일이 중첩되는 다중적 장소성으로 구성되는 과정을 확인할 수 있었다.

Imagem e discurso: a construção visual da diferenciação entre agricultura industrial e agroecológica em documentários ambientais

The present work aims to discuss the film strategies used in six environmental documentaries to construct a visual discourses of differentiation between industrial agriculture and organic agriculture. The research verified individual strategies used by each of the documentaries and strategies shared by several of them. Such strategies spread discourses that integrate what I call an anti-industrial agriculture discursive formation. Keywords: environmental discourse; documentary film; visual discourse; industrial agriculture; discursive formation.

CONTRIBUTION OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTARY MOVIE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS' ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES

This study investigates whether environmental documentaries have an effect on the attitudes of pre-service teachers, who are in an important position to shape coming generations. A total of 76 pre-service teachers at two state universities in Turkey participated in the study and worked on the activities designed about the documentary ‘Home’. The RNEP Scale (Dunlap et al., 2000) was used to measure and define the attitudes of pre-service teachers toward environment before and after the activities. The findings of the study showed that working on the environmental documentary had a positive influence since there was a significant difference in the attitude levels of pre-service teachers before and after watching the environmental documentary.The age and gender features of the pre-service teachers did not affect their attitude averages before or after the activity. Nevertheless, significant differences were observed at the sub-dimensions of the scale and at the language proficiency level of the participants. The difference between universities also disappeared after the activities. The difference in the attitudes was progressively significant as the language proficiency level of the participants increased. It is evident that the participants were more anthropocentric than ecocentric although they developed more positive behaviours toward environment after the activities.

Imaging the Indigenous in Philippine Environmental Documentaries

Imaging the Indigenous in Philippine Environmental Documentaries

Humans, sharks and the shared environment in the contemporary eco-doc

Focussing on the film Sharkwater directed by Rob Stewart (2006), this article discusses formal interpretive aspects of recent environmental documentaries which are intended to raise awareness about environmental issues. It is argued that contemporary environmental documentaries seek to persuade audiences to protect the shared physical environment by increasing the amount of information and imagery available to a shared cognitive environment. An integral part of this process is the conscious awareness of attitudes towards information presented. In the case of recent environmental films about threatened species it is argued that the inclusion of the human and the wild animal in the frame is a technique used to raise awareness of the complex questions concerning human attitudes towards other animals as well as towards other human beings. It is argued in particular that activist films are concerned to make visible the necessity for human cooperation in the protection of endangered species.