Documentary director Rachel Lears is back at Sundance highlighting the efforts of women of color once again. Like her 2019 Sundance Festival Favorite and Audience Award winner, “Knock Down The House,” which followed the congressional fights of four women of color, this year’s docufilm, “To The End,” celebrates four young women of color in the fight against climate change.
With the world in crisis as it misses target after target to stop climate change, the Green New Deal, a visionary plan to tackle the many issues impacting the earth’s weather patterns, is more important than ever. In this moment of political upheaval with clashes in the streets and the halls of Congress, climate policy is taking center stage for the first time, and the fight is on.
“To the End” goes behind the scenes of the movement where young people are fighting against the complacency and cynicism that has kept the current power structure from making meaningful progress in the climate crisis. The docufilm is told through the narratives of four instrumental young leaders – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – aka “AOC,” Congresswoman for New York’s 14th district, the Bronx and Queens, and sponsor of The Green New Deal; Varshini Prakash– Co-founder and Executive Director of the Sunrise Movement, a youth organization on the front lines of the U.S. climate debate; Alexandra Rojas– Executive Director of Justice Democrats, and Rhiana Gunn-Wright – Climate Policy Director at the Roosevelt Institute, New Consensus and co-author of The Green New Deal. Gen-Z is the last generation with a chance to end climate change and are demanding a say in what that future will be.
AOC promises her Green New Deal will tackle the climate crisis while also providing a “vehicle to truly deliver economic, racial and social justice in America,” she says in the docufilm. Fighting for what they are calling the “Civil Rights Movement of Their Generation,” all four of these ladies have committed their lives to this battle. A battle that they aren’t even sure can be won but they have mustered the courage to try because they must. Their fierce efforts have been met with nothing but resistance on both sides of the aisle. Their fight comes down to a fight against big fossil fuel companies that will never sit back and allow their industry to be dismantled or reduced in any way, whether it’s good for the planet or not. But all four activists are still determined to keep up the fight. Their generation and the generations that follow, are depending on them.
Meet the Artist
Rachel Lears is a cultural anthropologist, documentary director, producer, and cinematographer. Her recent film “Knock Down the House” follows four women who ran insurgent congressional campaigns in 2018, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush. The film won the Audience Award and the Festival Favorite Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and was shortlisted for an Oscar and nominated for an Emmy.
CREDITS
- Director: Rachel Lears
- Produced by: Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Rachel Lears, Robin Blotnick
- Director Of Photography: Rachel Lears
- Executive Producer: Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Rebecca Gang, Gale M Harold III, Martin Marquet
- Editor; Robin Blotnick
- Co-Executive Producer: Lauren Haber, Kelsey Koenig, Nancy Stephens, Rick Rosenthal, Adam Lewis, Melony Lewis
- Associate Producer: Karen Gaytán
- Original Score: Ryan Blotnick
- Participants: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Varshini Prakash, Alexandra Rojas
- Run time: 103 min
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