Film Review: The Weather Diaries
Sydney Film Festival documentary finalist The Weather Diaries written and directed by Asquith filmmaker Kathy Drayton explores parental grief about climate change and mass extinction.
Kathy Drayton made this film to the challenge ‘normalcy’ of parents living ‘everyday lives’ in the belief that their children will have similar future to their own.
However the future Kathy Drayton presents, one based on science, is catastrophic.
Kathy admits one of the film’s key emotional goals is to wake people up to the drastic impacts of climate change, already happening in Hornsby with wildfires and heatwaves. Her film confronts us to go beyond our own grief, fear and even denial and take focused action.
Based on interviews with scientists and wildlife carers, the film highlights the grim new reality of ecological collapse. The film shows flying foxes dropping dead from heat stress and dehydration as Sydney temperatures soar beyond 45 degrees.
This film took six years to make and follows Kathy Drayton’s daughter, Imogen, from childhood to adulthood. Despite establishing herself as a successful electro-pop musician, Imogen feels despair and hopelessness knowing that “the world is dying”.
The film ends with footage of the NSW Black Summer bushfires in December 2019, perhaps more unnerving because we know, in hindsight, that it was only the beginning of further catastrophic bushfires, followed by the Covid pandemic lockdown.
One might think this film is too depressing but there are beautiful delicate moments of hope and delight. Importantly it carries the strong conviction that we still can bend the exponential arc of CO2 emissions away from catastrophic climate change and towards a more hopeful future.
Perhaps what is most hopeful is that it is the power of creativity, the arts and music that can inspire us to take action on the climate emergency. Imogen knows that too. If she can do anything it will be through music.
A film that we all must see.
If you would like to organise a group booking of this film visit Fan-Force https://fan-force.com/films/the-weather-diaries/