About • Regeneratorshttps://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/about/The hope and climate catastrophe roadshow: ‘there’s just this thirst for optimistic story’ | Australian film | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/apr/03/the-hope-and-climate-catastrophe-roadshow-theres-just-this-thirst-for-optimistic-storyBefore the film plays, Gameau talks about his vision, how “to achieve sustainability we need to regenerate”. As he speaks, calls of “yeeeew!” and “boom!” come from the crowd, the audience giving the impression of not so much being thirsty for what he has to say, but outright starving. This is a community particularly attuned to the realities of the climate crisis – the fires of 2019-2020 came within a few hundred metres of the cinema, hundreds of homes in adjoining suburbs were lost, and many other homes are exposed to coastal inundation.
The film is set in December 2029. A hybrid of mockumentary and documentary, it takes the shape of a TV news report, looking back on a decade where First Nations sovereignty is recognised, a federal anti-corruption commission introduced, and Australia undergoes a rapid energy transition. The economy is booming as Australia runs on 90% renewables and exports green steel; individuals communities have energy security and cheap power from their own micro-grids; tenants lower their power bills by renting solar panels from other roofs; and electric vehicle owners earn cash by using their batteries as storage for the grid.
Regenerating Australia | Trailerhttps://youtu.be/JOqOBOOyzFgGameau’s style of film-making brings together the unlikely companions of catastrophic climate crisis and hope. His 2019 documentary 2040, framed as a letter to his four-year-old daughter, explores various solutions for climate mitigation and visualises the positive scenarios he believes could eventuate if these things are rolled out at scale. The response – Gameau says crowdfunding of projects started, and two million copies of the educational materials produced with the film were downloaded – convinced him that optimism is more motivating than gloom.