Director Nathan Grossman follows a group of climate scientists as they explore feelings instead of facts over the course of a therapeutic weekend in Climate in Therapy. We posed our Qs à la mode to Nathan, and here’s what he shared!
If I had to describe my film using only three adjectives, they would be: Quirky, jazzy and surprising!
I wanted to make this film because: I have never heard climate scientists speak about their emotions connected to the events and processes they studied. As the academic world is centered around what you “think” and not what you “feel,” I got intrigued to confront scientists with the opposite challenge.
The thing that surprised me most while making my film was: How important it is to use our human imagination. The changes that happen to the planet can often be incomprehensible, but we were gifted with imagination to help with exactly that challenge. To imagine what has not happened yet — and avoid it.
My favorite moment/scene/sequence in my film is: [When] the scientists are drawing imaginative images of what the world will look like in the future. One person then draws a graph, and in the discussion around this choice, it strikes them that the graph does not create emotions as the illustrative drawings do. I think it’s a telling moment.
My most invaluable piece of doc-making equipment was/is: A pair of scruffy headphones that I love. If Christopher Nolan is attached to his old Casio monitor, then they are the same for me. Sound first in documentary!
My must-have snack to get me through hours in the editing room is: Carrots. I once had an editor who could not talk to me on the phone. She knew that any call would result in stress levels rising for me, and this rabbit-eating behavior would unleash.
One piece of documentary-filmmaking advice I’d like to share with aspiring documentarians is: Only make films about topics that mean something for you profoundly. It takes too many years of work to stand working with a film about something you feel is so-so.
Want to check out Nathan’s film or just learn more about it?
Get the scoop, and your tickets, here!
